With the air quality deteriorating in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday started implementing measures to address the issue.
The BMC said that weather changes have severely impacted air quality in Mumbai Metropolitan City and Mumbai Metropolitan Region too. Municipal Commissioner and Administrator of BMC, Iqbal Singh Chahal has directed the implementation of measures to address the issue of air quality, the civic body in Maharashtra’s capital said in a post on X.
The BMC said that to control dust, mist machines are now in operation at various locations, including Worli Sea Face, Haji Ali, Peddar Road, Swarajya Bhoomi (Girgaon Chowpatty), Nariman Point, Fashion Street, Badhwar Park and the World Trade Center, etc.
Overall Air Quality Index (AQI) in Mumbai stands at 127, in the ‘Moderate’ category as per SAFAR-India.
The BMC has also warned that it would stop construction anywhere, may it be a private site or a government project, if dust and pollution control measures are not being taken.
Construction is going on at a whopping 6,000 sites in the city currently, an official release quoted municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal as saying on Friday.
Chahal, who is acting as administrator of the civic body as its elections are pending, held a meeting with all stakeholders in view of the alarming air pollution levels in the city, the BMC release said.
The BMC release, meanwhile, said standard operating procedures or guidelines for ensuring better air quality will be issued by Monday.
At the meeting, Chahal suggested various measures like compulsory use of 35-feet high iron sheet enclosures around construction sites and covering under-construction buildings with green cloth or jute sheets on all sides.
Sprinkler systems should be provided at all construction sites within 15 days and anti-smog guns should be provided within 30 days, the release said.
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and the BMC would depute experts to verify the level of pollution caused by refineries in the city, Tata Power plant and RCF plant and check these sites for pollution control measures, it said.
Air quality in the Mumbai region worsened barely two weeks after the end of monsoon, the BMC noted, and added that the central and Maharashtra governments have also taken note of it.
Chahal instructed that vehicles transporting construction debris shall be covered properly with tarpaulin sheets and not carry more than the prescribed load.
The transport commissioner’s office should take stringent action against vehicles which are past their service life, do not have a Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate or are overloading, the release said.