Gujarat’s air plan finally starts breathing

AHMEDABAD: In a major step towards curbing the killer particulate matter (PM) pollution, for the first time, a three layered multi-department body has been formed to implement a Comprehensive Air Action Plan (CAAP) for Gujarat cities. Beginning with Ahmedabad, the three-layered committees, involving 10 departments of the government will steer an action plan on the ground. A notification in this regard will be issued later this week.

Three years after the CAAP was first brought to the drawing board, it will finally see action as government readies to notify these committees.

Roughly, CAAP is directed towards primary sources of air pollution and will draw strategies to curb or reduce them — like vehicular emissions, traffic management, industrial emissions, burning of biomass, burning of municipal waste at Pirana to garbage in neighbourhoods and localities and even burning of crop residues. Then there is road dust, dust from constructions and demolition for which the CAAP has mentioned ways to control them at source via wall-to-wall carpeting, planting trees and adequate covering up of construction sites.
“The draft CAAP for Ahmedabad has been approved by the Union ministry of environment and a similar plan will be formulated for Surat as well,” says additional chief secretary Rajiv Gupta.