Gaya: The Central Bihar Chamber of Commerce has sought chief minister Nitish Kumar's urgent intervention to save the city after Gaya was declared the fourth most polluted city in the world according to a WHO report on global air pollution database.

Central Bihar Chamber of Commerce president Kaushalendra Pratap has sent a three-page memorandum to the CM. The business body has demanded development of an industrial area away from the township and relocation of industrial units to the designated area for pollution-control purposes.

Another important demand of the chamber pertains to total ban on the plying of old vehicles on Gaya roads. The business body identified vehicles as an important source of air pollution. There is no mechanism to regulate the movement of vehicles with the result that poison-emitting old vehicles criss-cross Gaya roads every now and then. The chamber chief has demanded immediate ban on the movement of such vehicles on Gaya roads.

He has also demanded restoration of water bodies and proper upkeep of the surviving ponds and tanks. Water bodies have been recklessly usurped by land sharks and residential colonies have come over such bodies that existed as ponds and tanks in the not-too-distant past. The sources of water recharge of the leftover water bodies are getting continuously blocked. The trend needs to reversed, stated the petition.

Massive planting drives in and around the city is also required to clean the heavily polluted Gaya air and the chamber has demanded construction of a low-height dam on the Falgu and construction of a bypass to prevent the entry of heavy vehicles in the township.

The chamber has complained that a well-laid system of underground drainage used to exist in the township. On account of non-maintenance, these underground drains have got blocked resulting in spillage of drain effluents on city roads and streets.