AP to Adopt Green Technologies to Tackle Air Pollution in Visakha: Pawan

Vijayawada: Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan has said the state government would adopt green technologies to bring down air pollution levels in Visakhapatnam.

He was replying to questions in the legislative council on Thursday from Rama Rao and Bhumireddy Ramgopal Reddy on the rise in air pollution levels in the steel city.

The deputy CM listed a series of measures to deal with the air pollution problem. These are timely implementation of national clean air programme by providing adequate resources to the GVMC; strict enforcement of emission standards by introducing latest control equipment and processes; initiation of resource conservation and recycling measures wherever possible as part of the circular economy; use of biodegradable materials in place of single-use plastics that are banned in the state; ensuring coordination with the departments of industries, transport, agriculture, environment and forests, science and technology and municipal administration for implementation of the national clean air programme.

PK said the coordination efforts with several stakeholder departments was aimed to prevent pollution contributing factors like road dust, vehicle emission, construction dust, fugitive emissions from Visakhapatnam Port and pollution from other industries and open-burning of biomass etc.

He expressed his plan to hold consultations with stakeholders, NGOs, academicians, environmentalists and scientists to find out local solutions to the problem. A plan is to rope in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and other research institutions to transfer their new technologies.

Pawan Kalyan made an appeal to the industries to utilise the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for several activities aimed at controlling pollution. He called for developing greenery in the city and also in industrial areas on a massive scale by mobilising resources involving the NGOs, educational institutions and environmental activists.

The deputy CM said the government would initiate all requisite measures to reduce pollution in the city. A sum of `19.15 crore was utilised by the GVMC from 2022 to 2024 to mitigate air pollution. “Though the Centre had released `129.25 crore under NCAP, the YSR Congress government failed to utilise the funds. We will release funds as per requirement to deal with air pollution,” he said.