BMC panels meet to decide on measures, SOPs to mitigate air pollution

Mumbai: A joint meeting of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) seven-member committee and technical advisory committee was held on Tuesday to come up with an action plan for control of air pollution, especially dust, in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)

Mumbai: A joint meeting of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) seven-member committee and technical advisory committee was held on Tuesday to come up with an action plan for control of air pollution, especially dust, in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

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A detailed discussion was held in the meeting to take concrete measures to prevent air pollution and control dust and for guidelines to be followed in the MMR. It was decided flying squads of ward committees will keep an eye on all construction sites.

The flying squad at the wards will be headed by assistant commissioners and will be trained at the ward level. The BMC had declared that there was a total of 5,000 sites in Mumbai where various construction works are going on. The dust generated by large-scale construction as well as various development works, changes in the wind speed have been found to be the two main factors of air pollution.

The flying squads will first identify the sites in their wards and then issue a precautionary notice to developers on the air pollution measures to be taken and the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to be followed. These measures and SOPs will be decided by the seven-member committee constituted by municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal.

“We are identifying construction sites as per directions by municipal chief and then will issue precautionary notices to developer. If the precautionary notices are not complied with then we will issue stop work notices. But all this will happen once the SOPs are finalised, “ said a civic official at the ward level.

Sanjeev Kumar, additional municipal commissioner, said various suggestions were given by environment, building proposals and development plan departments and further discussions will be underway to decide on the final SOP.

“Regarding issuing of precautionary notices, it will take at least a week,” said Kumar.

The SOPs formulated by the seven-member committee will be implemented from April 1, which will stress on measures that need to be taken to control dust generated from various construction and infrastructure works in Mumbai.

The committee is headed by Kumar comprising other members such as Ulhas Mahale, deputy municipal commissioners from infrastructure, Atul Patil, environment, Chanda Jadhav, solid waste management, Sunil Rathod, chief engineer, development planning, Satish Gite, executive engineer and a member nominated by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.

It has also been decided to hold another meeting on Thursday and also proposed to organise a main workshop for the concerned partners on Friday at the municipal headquarters.