‘If BMC’s charcoal tandoor ban is enforced, we will go bankrupt’

The move is set to impact around 1,000 businesses from Colaba to Dahisar and leave thousands of people jobless, especially as the 200 godowns operating from the British-era Sewri coal depot may be forced to shut down

MUMBAI: A blanket ban by the BMC on the use of charcoal tandoors in restaurants and hotels has put the livelihood of thousands of charcoal merchants in jeopardy. This move is set to impact around 1,000 businesses from Colaba to Dahisar and leave thousands of people jobless, especially as the 200 godowns operating from the British-era Sewri coal depot may be forced to shut down.

‘If BMC’s charcoal tandoor ban is enforced, we will go bankrupt’

July 8 is the deadline given by the BMC to all restaurants, eateries and dhabas to switch to electrical appliances and green fuels. However, Mumbai’s charcoal merchants are of the opinion that the BMC’s decision stems from a vague notification that equates the air pollution guidelines for bakeries using wood with restaurants using charcoal tandoors, without any scientific evidence to back the claim that charcoal tandoors are a significant source of pollution.

HT was the first to report on February 12 that the BMC’s G South ward had issued notices to over 80 restaurants from February 10 onwards for not complying with their air pollution notification and switching from charcoal tandoors to green fuels.

Imran Kolsawalla, director of the Bombay Charcoal Merchants’ Association, said that there were two main issues faced by charcoal merchants. “One is the BMC issuing this blanket ban on charcoal, a business we have been in traditionally. The second is the fact that as per the Mumbai Port Authority lease (MPA), we cannot conduct any other trade, as change of user is not permitted in our license. We are caught between the devil and the deep sea here.”

An upset Kolsawalla said that the coal dealers’ entire ecosystem, from manufacturing to supply chain, was dependent on their hotelier clients. “We buy coal worth lakhs, even crores of rupees, as we stock it for the monsoon too in the Sewri coal depot,” he said. “How can the BMC abruptly stop our trade? The main source of air pollution is from vehicular emissions. Will they ban cars and trucks on roads?”

Kolsawalla claimed that PM2 particulate matter responsible for causing air pollution was not emitted by charcoal. “It comes from the coal that industries sell,” he said. “The coal used in tandoors doesn’t have fly ash; it has bottom ash that can be removed by hand and discarded easily. If this ban is enforced, we will go bankrupt.”

The coal dealer said that they were willing to co-operate if they were directed to use charcoal in a certain way to curb pollution. “We are not against the BMC policy or guidelines,” he said. “However, there has to be a scientific study to corroborate its claim. We understand that the wood used in bakeries emits smoke but charcoal is prepared by a carbonised method, and no smoke is emitted. The BMC’s notification clubs bakeries, bhattis, tandoors and hotels together. This discrepancy needs to be corrected. The BMC cannot put a blanket ban on coal.”

Kolsawalla said that in earlier times, the whole of Mumbai cooked on sigdis (stoves) which used coal. “Today, it is being used in all hotels and restaurants serving ethnic foods like tandoori rotis and kebabs,” he said. “It is also used for a variety of other purposes, for instance in water purification, as the candles in water filters have charcoal in them. Not just that, activated charcoal, face masks and agarbattis (incense sticks) too are made from charcoal.”

Haridwar Singh, president of the Bombay Charcoal Merchants’ Association elaborated, “Even the poor are affected by this ban since they use charcoal for cooking, as they don’t have ration cards. We distribute to shops, restaurants, dhabas and hotels. We are just dealers here but the manufacturers are in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and the interiors of Maharashtra, and so the affected parties are many. Even a famous restaurant like Pritam da Dhaba in Dadar requires eight sacks of charcoal a day.”

Kolsawalla said the coal merchants were seeking legal opinion on challenging the BMC notification. “If it fails to amend the notification, we will move court as a last recourse,” he said.