Officials of four states discuss steps to check pollution in NCR

NEW DELHI, June 17: To reduce the vehicular pollution in Delhi/NCR, the state government today held a meeting with the four neighbouring states and discussed various steps including installation of weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems on border points. A high level meeting of the top officers of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan - chaired by Delhi Chief Secretary K K Sharma, was today convened at Delhi Secretariat here. The meeting aimed at implementing direction of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to reduce the vehicular pollution in Delhi/NCR as well as to restrict the entry of the overloaded vehicles at the border of the Delhi itself particularly through installation of WIM System, an official said. The installation of the WIM bridges at the entry points of neighbouring states, especially in Haryana and UP was also discussed in order to prevent entry of overloaded, polluting and non-destined heavy vehicles. It was unanimously decided that all the three states & Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) will put in concerted efforts to curb the menace of ingress of overloaded vehicles in NCR region. "The members have shown deep concern about the ingress of overloaded vehicles in the NCR region, particularly in Delhi further compounding the problem of vehicular pollution," the government said in a statement. In meeting, it was also observed that 90 percent of the goods vehicles pass through the national highways and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to set up the Toll Plaza with WIM system in all the leading national highways all over the country. "It was emphasised that NHAI should play a pro-active role to install WIMs in all the main entry points to Delhi/NCR region in Line with Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH) notification dated December 12,2013 and policy circular dated May 5, 2014," it also said.