“Only today there is a big article on construction waste, what kind of effects it has on air pollution. We have discussed this issue earlier. Construction waste is a big contributor to air pollution in Delhi. We will bring in rules within the next 15 days (to regulate and manage dust from construction activity,” Javadekar said during theopening function of the two-day meet of the environment ministers of all the state governments.

“After all, if (Delhi) Metro can manage the construction dust properly, why cannot the rest of the city? Today ministers from all the state governments in the NCR region are here. We will discuss it with them,” Javadekar said.

As part of its series on air pollution in Delhi, The Indian Express on Monday reportedhow Delhi’s air was being polluted by the huge amount of dust generated from construction sites in and around the city, in violation of the norms regulating construction dust. Some site managers told the paper they were not even aware of the existence of rules governing construction dust.

At the two-day conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a National Air Quality Index, a simple publicly-displayed tool that will inform people about the quality of air in their vicinity. This colour-coded index, launched in 10 cities today and to be deployed eventually in all cities with a 1-million plus population, will show the concentration of six pollutants in air on a real time basis.

In the first phase, the index has been launched in Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow Varanasi, Faridabad, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai.