Kolkata: The Urban Development and Municipal Affairs (UDMA) department has directed the urban local bodies (ULB) across the state to keep vigil over the construction sites to ensure that the developers follow precautionary measures to prevent noise, water and dust pollution.
The move comes in the wake of the department coming across a large number of buildings being constructed within various municipalities and municipal corporations that may pose health hazards to the households residing in adjoining areas and to the workmen engaged in such construction work.
Besides notifying preventive measures, the department also delineated the practices that need to be discarded for construction work. The guidelines are based on the directions of the Environment department. The preventive measures include wrapping construction area with geotextile fabric, installing dust barriers, applying water and minimum soils in a visible damp or crusted condition for temporary stabilisation, applying water prior to levelling or any other earth moving activity to keep the soil moist throughout the process, limiting vehicle speed to 15 mph (miles per hour) on the work site, cleaning wheels and undercarriage of haul trucks prior to leaving construction site.
The measures further directed applying a cover or screen to stockpiles and stabilising the same at completion of activity by water and maintaining a dust palliative to all outer surfaces of the stockpiles. During construction work, including cutting of marbles, ambient noise level should not exceed 65 db (decibel).
The department has instructed against indiscriminate disposal of debris, not allowing vehicles to run at high speed within the work site, not to keep materials without effective cover, not to keep materials or debris on the roads or pavements and not to cut materials without proper dust/ noise control facility. It warned against burning of old tyres in hot mix plants as a fuel during construction and repair of the roads for melting coal tar.