Dust and noise pollution mitigation measures made part of the building permissions

GHMC imposes strict dust pollution regulations for construction sites in Hyderabad to ensure compliance with environmental standards.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has recently incorporated several conditions into the building permissions, which require the developers to adhere to the standards pertaining to dust pollution at the construction site.

As per the guidelines issued in the name of GHMC Commissioner K.Ilambarithi, the builders should comply with the ‘Dust Mitigation Measures for Construction and Demolition Activities’ formulated by the Central government under the Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules, 2018.

The conditions have been stipulated in view of many complaints pertaining to noise and dust pollution from across the city, especially the West Zone where construction activity is at its peak.

Measures should be provided against dust, smoke and air pollution for the building as well as the site, including screens for the building under construction and continuous dust/wind-breaking walls all around the site which are at least three metres in height.

Ambient noise levels should not exceed those mentioned in the Noise Pollution (Control & Regulation) Rules, and in order to adhere to the same, in sites over 2000 square metres in area, the developers should install decibel monitors or sound level meters.

The monitors should accurately record the decibels continuously and log them with date and time stamp in their internal retrievable storage device, the conditions stipulate.

In sites over 2000 square metres in size, the builder should also place dust monitors in order to record the intensity of the particulate matter. The monitors should record PM2.5 and PM10 continuously with date and time stamp.