Blowing in the air: Answer to when halted infra projects will be finished

NEW DELHI: It’s been more than three weeks now since construction activities came to a halt to check pollution, leaving various development projects in the city behind schedule. While such a ban is envisaged for periods when the pollution breaches the “severe” level and remains there for more than 48 hours, the air quality in recent times have fallen below that benchmark.Yet the Supreme Court has not notified the withdrawal of its November 4 ban orders. On Monday, though, the court did ask the Central Pollution Control Board for a report by Friday.
The close to 30 days of cessation of construction work has affected the schedules of major projects across the capital. A Public Works Department official cited the Pragati Maidan redevelopment plan as an example of how the construction ban has made things difficult for the builders and for others. The debris, he pointed, has had to remain covered there, adversely affecting traffic movement at the spot.
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While the trade fair ground redevelopment might perhaps not finish as expected within 2019, PWD’s pedestrianisation of Chandni Chowk too is hanging fire. “This is one project that we were intent on starting at the earliest and finishing on time, but there is nothing that can be done till the ban is lifted,” said an official, requesting anonymity. The streetscaping project — the iconic stretch’s redesigning to international standards in nine sections, according to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal — too will miss the completion deadline of 11 months.
The issue of projects lying idle due to the imposition of the ban on construction activity was raised in the meeting of the standing committee of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Monday. Leader of the House Tilak Raj Kataria said that an amount of Rs 25 lakh issued from the councillors’ fund could not be utilised due to stoppage of work. “While the sanction letter for the release of fund was issued to some councillors, we can’t ask officials to begin the work on repair of roads, drains or parks due to the ban,” Kataria said.
An official from the north corporation said that though the civic body didn’t have money to take up big projects, they had planned to tap into the funds available to municipal councillors, MLAs and MPs to construct new school buildings and drains and to repair roads. “All these have been stalled,” said Kataria.
In SDMC, the first tower parking at Green Park was scheduled to have become operational in mid-November. An official, however, said, “We had to change the deadline after halting all work here. The deadline for the multilevel puzzle parking at Lajpat Nagar might also be extended now for the same reason.”
The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority initially banned construction activities between 6pm and 6am from October 26 to 30 as a pre-emptive measure in view of the Diwali pollution. On October 30, as pollution soared, the ban was extended till November 2 and the ban window stretched by four hours to 10am. On November 1, a complete ban was announced when the air quality worsened. On November 4, the apex court banned construction and demolition work till further orders.
Just after Diwali, the November 1-5 period saw pollution at emergency levels, aggravated by the burning of paddy harvest residue in the neighbouring states and pollutants carried to Delhi by winds. A slight drizzle on November 2 worsened the situation, making November 3 the foulest day of the season. “Rain washes away pollutants, but light drizzles and calm wind conditions do not allow particles to disperse,” a meteorological department official explained.
In the second episode of extreme pollution between November 11 and 15, cloud cover and the slow speed of the wind speed due to a western disturbance similarly prevented the dispersion of the accumulated pollutants, creating smog conditions in the city. The air quality has stayed in the “poor” and “very poor” levels since, but the top court hasn’t rescinded the ban order.