Delhi NCR: There is a wave of restlessness in Delhi NCR. September 30, 2023, is an alarming date for the residents of Delhi NCR. Diesel generators will be banned in the entire NCR including Noida and Ghaziabad from October 1. Like every year, this time GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan) is being implemented to stop the increasing air pollution. Only those generators which run on bio or PNG fuel will be allowed to run. Well, no one can challenge the fact that everyone is suffering from pollution and needs to save themselves from pollution. The Commissioner of Air Quality Management has implemented this order.
GRAP is divided into 4 parts
STAGE 1 AQI 201- 300
STAG2 2 AQI 301- 400
STAGE 3 AQI 401- 450
STAGE 4 AQI 450 AND ABOVE
Fear and chaos in the minds of entrepreneurs
This implementation date is on the head and there is tension among the entrepreneurs of Delhi NCR. Due to this, thousands of entrepreneurs in the industrial sector of Noida are facing problems and disappointment, because they still have not converted their generators to PNG fuel.
One hour outage will be a loss of Rs 500 crore
Ban on Diesel Generators will be a risk to the business too. Its effect will be that if there is no electricity for one hour, entrepreneurs will suffer a loss of revenue worth Rs 500 crore.
There are around 12 to 15 thousand industries in Noida- Greater Noida together. Apart from this, there are societies and private institutions. There are around 40 thousand generators in the city, out of which only about four thousand have been converted into PNG fuel. This includes 1,500 generators from the industry. In this situation, if diesel generators stop, the enterprise will be affected. This will have a direct impact on the MSME sector. 50-100 workers work in small industries. If the units are closed, it will hurt the workers too.
High Rise residents will face a lockdown kind of problem
‘Ajnara Homes maintenance agency JLL is taking this very lightly’
Chandan Sinha, a resident, of Ajnara Homes, Greater Noida West says, ” In our society, there are 2200 flats in which 2100 families are living. Our lives are in danger. Ajnara Homes maintenance agency JLL is taking this very lightly. When we approached them to find out what they were doing, they responded – ‘Last year also such a thing came but nothing happened’. Greater Noida West has been renamed by homebuyers as the city of problems and there is no second thought in this.”
‘Impossible to accompany child all the time in lift’
Dinker Pandey Resident of Ajnara Homes shared his concern, ” I am the father of a small girl, she often uses a lift. Since this directive came out I have been quite worried about the thought as my girl uses the lift alone time, it is impossible to accompany her all the time, what will happen if someday she stocks in the lift for an hour?”
He continues, “I do not want the scene of Paras Tierra repeated when the elderly lady was dead due to the free fall of the lift and the family got to know after an hour.”
‘ Insufficient period given for conversion’
Avinash Kumar, Secretary, Prateek Laurel says, “Period given for conversion is not sufficient. There is a waiting of 3-4 months on the vendor side if we want to go for conversion. Conversion cost is too high and fundraising from residents is not an easy task. There should be some kind of subsidy or loan facility provided by the Noida Authority.”
He continues, “As heard from office bearers of other societies who already converted their DG sets into PNG/CNG are not getting an adequate supply of PNG/CNG. If we go for conversion not sure if CNG/PNG Suppliers have sufficient capacity to supply us as per our requirement.”
‘This conversion is a deal of a crore’
Bhupesh Sharma, Resident, of Ace Aspire says, ” In our society, there are 988 FLATS with three generator sets. We have to convert it into biofuel, this conversion is a deal of a crore. Builder has not given an official handover, AOA is only handling the management kind of things.”
He continues, “My question is how to deal with this when there is no handover done from the builder. Without any doubt, this falls on the shoulders of the builder. AOA do not have any extra savings or income all they take as cam charges that are spent on the maintenance of society. We as a citizen agree to grap but what about the NPCL power outage?”
‘Who will take responsibility if any mishap takes place’
Manish Kumar, Resident, Elegant Ville says, “Residents allege that Industries are using maximum Diesel generators that should be limited no doubt in that. But someone please let us know how much DG sets and for how much duration these societies use? There are elderly, patients and kids in high rises too. Who will take responsibility if any mishap takes place?
‘Societies should be exempted from this conversion’
Residents and hospitals are writing letters to the government and are seeking the exemption from this rule that essential services should be exempted from this rule. Many hold the opinion that the Government should take charge of it like the PNG can be supplied in societies through a pipeline because there are no funds in the societies and bearing this huge expense is impossible for societies as they do not have any funding.
Last year only industrial DG was banned but this time the orders are to ban the DG in Hospitals, Metro Stations, Banks, Railway Stations etc.
Along with this order has brought a lot of chaos in the medical sector too. The doctors are alleging that it is not so easy for critical care services and emergencies to switch to PNG or biofuel-like ventilators and ICU services will stop working resulting in the Death of the patient.
This decision has troubled the doctors of Delhi NCR
Dr DK Gupta, Head of Felix Hospitals says, “There are critical equipments which are placed in ICU or which saves the life at critical time there are lifts in hospitals too. Imagine we take a patient in a lift and all of a sudden lift stops at outage what will happen to the patient?
In hospitals, there are monitors where the doctor keep their eyes constantly while operating the patient and the light goes, just imagine what can happen. This is impossible to turn to biofuel in hospitals there will be problems if DG sets are removed, which will be life-threatening.
Dr Ashish Jain, Plumologist, Max Hospital says, “8 months the government do nothing, and when the time of smog comes, it gets alerts and starts giving such orders. We agree that there is a lot of pollution and needs to be controlled but is it the only way? Nothing is possible without the electricity. Can NPCL promise to give uninterrupted power supply in the hospitals? What about the patient who is on a ventilator? This is impossible how can in such a short span it can happen?
‘Supreme court gave the orders in 2017 but this is the time for implementation needs to be done now’
Vivek Chattopadhyay, an Environmentalist says, “This notification came before informing about the implementation. All sizes of dg were supposed to convert into fuel. Plus it was also ordered that the electricity supply should not get interrupted. The implementation is the need of an hour, industries, and residential societies need to follow this because DG sets are the main reason for the pollution. Supreme Court gave the orders in 2017 but this time for implementation needs to be done now
We informed NPCL that residents are expecting NPCL to give 24 hours of non-stop and uninterrupted power supply to Noida High rises, hospitals etc.
On this, Sarnath Ganguly, General Manager, NPCL says, ” No one interrupts the electricity supply. It only happens when there is a fault in the line or the consumer installation. Like in Greater Noida West big societies due to internal fault, the outside line gets tripped which results in the power outage in another 3-5 adjoining societies.”
He says, “There has been no load shedding in the Noida for many years. If there is any problem in the power supply it is due to the consumer end only. To resolve all the problems, our NPCL team remains active for 24 hours. Big housing societies that have big transformers should also take care to keep the system updated, due to their fault the line may get tripped and the power supply gets interrupted, which affects other societies. In such cases, we have to disconnect the power supply of the adjoining societies which takes time. Restoration is done in the next 1-2 hours.