City To Get Pollution Board Similar To Tokyo's

Serious concerns over alarming increase in air, water and noise pollution in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits echoed in the Telangana Assembly on Tuesday, with Opposition leaders called for immediate measures to contain the situation before it goes from bad to worse.

Agreeing that the pollution levels in the city were a cause for grave concern, Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao conceded to the demand for calling a meeting of city legislators to discuss various ways and means to tackle the alarming situation.

Replying to supplementary questions of MIM leaders who raised the issue in House during Question Hour, the Municipal Administration Minister promised that the Telangana government was committed to combat pollution. As a matter of fact, Hyderabad was relatively better than others cities in the nation in terms of pollution levels and has been rated as the best city for living, he claimed.

The Central Pollution Control Board which recently had studied pollution levels in 21 different regions in Hyderabad had ranked the levels moderate to satisfactory.

KTR pointed out that one of the major contributors of air pollution (in parts per million) in Hyderabad were plastic and metal industries on its outskirts, which called for their immediate action. As many as 1,545 such industries were identified and would be shifted out in a phased manner by 2017. 19 places had been identified for the purpose of shifting and relocating these units, he said.

Regarding water pollution, the Minister explained that as per data available, water pollution (in parts per million) was caused mainly due to the discharge of untreated sewage. To reduce water pollution levels, the government must provide a mechanism to intercept and divert storm-drains and treat sewage before discharging it into water bodies.

This was being looked into by HMWSSB, HMDA and GHMC authorities, who would soon arrive at the solution, he promised and added that the government was planning to spend Rs. 1,240 crores to set up water and sewerage treatment plants across the city.

Referring to Tokyo City in Japan as an ideal blend of technology and clean environment, Rao said that the Telangana government, too, was considering setting up the Hyderabad Clean Air Authority (in the lines of the Tokyo Clean Air Authority) to tackle air pollution.