BMC convenes high-level meeting to devise pollution control strategy

A day after deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis apologised to citizens for the inconvenience caused by under-construction infrastructure projects in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) held a high-level meeting with the departments concerned to chalk out a strategy to tackle the air pollution

A day after deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis apologised to citizens for the inconvenience caused by under-construction infrastructure projects in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) held a high-level meeting with the departments concerned to chalk out a strategy to tackle the air pollution.

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On Monday, the city’s air quality index (AQI) was in the upper end of ‘moderate’ category.

The meeting was chaired by Sanjeev Kumar, additional municipal commissioner (environment), who instructed the officials to ensure that the provisions of the Environment Protection Act (1986) and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981, which are mandated in tender conditions for almost all BMC projects, are followed by the contractors. The building proposals department was also asked to ensure that private developers follow air pollution norms.

“All these departments have been asked to work as a team to enforce these guidelines. We are working on multiple indicators and work is in progress to ensure air pollution is brought under control,” Kumar told HT.

The BMC’s environment department will issue fresh guidelines in this regard to other departments, whose contractors may not have been following the mandates of the EPA and the Air Act.

“All tenders for various infra projects already have conditions for environment protection that contractors need to follow. These guidelines were either not being adhered to or not taken seriously. Through fresh instructions, the departments will have to ensure that contractors abide by the tender conditions,” an environment department official, who is privy to the development, said.

“The clauses in the tenders were already there but there was no proper enforcement. Some contractors were doing it voluntarily, but now BMC will enforce these clauses to bring down the dust particles, PM2.5 and PM10,” he added.

Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal had in his budget speech earlier this month clarified that the BMC was not a regulatory body and had limited powers to control air pollution. “The MPCB (Maharashtra Pollution Control Board) is the regulatory body, but we will be taking on a more active role in monitoring the pollution levels,” Chahal had said.

Fadnavis on Sunday apologised to the people of Mumbai, saying, “We are sorry that the people are facing trouble because of traffic jams, congestion and pollution as a lot of development works have been taken up in the city recently. Don’t worry you will not have to face them again for the next 30-40 years once the ongoing works are completed in the next two-three years.”