As Mumbai Chokes, BMC Announces Slew of Anti-Pollution Measures to Clear The Air

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Friday issued directives for construction sites, industries, and vehicles to enable Mumbaikars to breathe easy, with the city being choked by its toxic air in recent days. At a top-level meeting of various stakeholders, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal ordered them to ensure that pollution dust raised by nearly 6,000 construction sites must be strictly monitored and preventive/remedial measures should be taken forthwith, and violations would lead to ‘stop work’ notices issued at the site concerned itself.

The CEOs of MHADA, SRA, and MIDC, MDs of MSRDC and MMRCL, Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA, and Presidents of CREDAI, MCHI, NAREDCO, and PEATA, besides top MPCB and BMC officers, and representatives from the CMO were present at the meeting.

“Construction is currently underway at 6,000 locations in Mumbai. Climate change is adversely affecting the air quality of the Mumbai metropolitan area, including the Mumbai region. As a result of this, it has been observed that there is an increase in air pollution. Regarding taking measures against this background, a joint meeting of various organizations of developers such as CREDAI, MCHI, NAREDCO, PEATA along with all relevant departments of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation along with MMRDA, MHADA, SRA, MMRCL, MIDC etc, was held by Municipal Commissioner and Administrator. The new guidelines for dust and pollution control will be circulated by Monday. It will be necessary to follow them by all agencies and institutions, otherwise action will be taken without any hesitation,” said Chahal.

He also said that, henceforth, any construction site of more than one acre will compulsorily have an iron sheet enclosure of 35 feet high on all sides, and for less than one acre, it will be 25 feet height, at the construction site, with the entire building under construction enclosed with green cloth/jute sheet/tarpaulin to ensure that no dust spreads during the construction activity.

The municipal body has now also directed to install sprinklers at all construction sites within fifteen days and a smog gun system within a month. Major 50 to 60 roads of the city will be micro-sprayed with smog guns in the morning and instructions have been issued for review of air quality in the vicinity of refineries.

All the construction works undertaken by Metro, Roads Department, and other government agencies shall also enclose their construction sites and provide sprinkler systems and anti-smog guns. For buildings that are to be demolished, they must have water sprinklers on all sides to settle dust during the course of the razing, while any works like marble cutting, grinding, cutting of construction materials, etc. shall be carried out in enclosed premises only.

Transportation vehicles carrying construction debris will have to be covered properly with tarpaulin sheets, and stick to the designated weight without overloading, their tyres must be cleaned to remove the dust and sprinkled with water before the sites for the roads and must be washed after the day’s work.

If any vehicle is found violating the rules or dumping debris on roads/footpaths in the city, they shall be penalised heavily and their registration will be cancelled, and special squads will monitor these vehicles.

Construction sites shall now have CCTV networks to ensure that all the above measures are being implemented at those locations to curb air pollution levels. For industries, the MPCB and BMC shall depute experts to verify the level of pollution caused due to refineries, Tata Power Plant, and RCF and check all the installations for their pollution control measures.

Random samples shall be collected by the experts from these installations on a regular basis and they shall be chemically analysed to ensure that no pollution is caused by these plants, with stringent action for all violations. The BMC will set up 50 Special Squads in its 24 Administrative Wards which shall visit all the construction sites daily to ensure compliance with the above instructions, take video recordings, and if violations are noticed, slap a ‘stop work’ notice on the spot.

The Transport Commissioner will also send squads to check if any vehicles are plying on roads beyond their designated service life, without proper PUC or overloading, and take stringent penal and disciplinary action against the defaulters including revocation of such vehicles’ registration.