Watch out for 6 spots with persistent poor air

The Central Pollution Control Board has identified six spots in Mumbai with consistently poor air quality, including Malad, Sion, Chembur, Deonar, Bandra Kurla Complex, and Kherwadi junction. The sources of pollution vary, including construction sites, vehicular emissions, and small bakeries. The local wards have started issuing stop-work notices to RMC plants and construction sites to address the issue. The BMC is also working on increasing the number of air quality monitoring stations in the city.

Mumbai: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified six spots across Mumbai that have consistently registered poor Air Quality Index (AQI) over the last one week. They are: Malad, Sion, Chembur, Deonar, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and Kherwadi junction.

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The sources of pollution from each neighbourhood are different – although the usual suspects are construction sites, this time infra projects, vehicular emissions and small bakeries have also come in this ambit.

Aligning with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) guidelines the respective wards have started issuing stop-work notices to RMC plants and construction sites.

Forty stop-work notices to the sites have been issued in H east ward alone with BKC featuring as a permanent fixture on the list of the most polluted location. P north ward in Malad west has issued two stop-work notices and has repeatedly recorded high AQI levels. In F north ward, Sion’s AQI level was at 280 where 104 warning letters and 22 stop-work notices have been issued.

Swapnaja Kshirsagar, assistant commissioner, H east ward pointed to various construction sites under MMRDA in BKC and the bullet train car shed as the sources of pollution. “We have issued letters to 20 construction sites in BKC and around 106 intimation notices have been sent to the entire ward to adhere to the recently formulated SOPs. Forty stop-work notices were issued to construction sites in this ward because despite issuing letters, they had failed to comply with guidelines,” said Kshirsagar.

Apart from the bullet train yard where excavation work is on since the last two months, she pointed to J Kumar RMC plants as well.

Bandra east’s Kherwadi junction which showed an AQI of 210 has no construction sites but there is a traffic signal with vehicular emissions, Kshirsagar pointed out. The AQI in Malad west was 221 on Tuesday and since then has consistently risen.

Kiran Dighavkar, assistant commissioner, P north ward said, “We have observed that areas away from AQI monitoring stations have also recorded poor air quality – Ekta Nagar slum dwellers (in Kandivili) burn garbage, while we have increased instances of sprinkling water in locations near the Malad east station where road works are on.” Additionally, he has issued notices to seven RMC plants and warning to 97 sites. 27 notices have been issued to contractors of road works.

While Deonar, in Chembur, remains on the radar constantly due to a huge dumping ground where garbage is burnt, this time bakeries have also been seen to cause pollution. While 54 construction sites in the M east ward, with alarming AQI levels, have received intimation notices, a civic official said, “Smoke from the bakeries, close to AQI monitoring meters, is responsible for the soaring AQI levels.”

Minesh Pimpale, deputy municipal commissioner said while monitoring stations are giving citizens an idea of pollution levels, it is not necessarily a holistic picture. “There is a monitor close to the signal in Bandra east’s Nandadeep Garden. Now, if you go further down, the air is clear which will give a normal reading. So, if we need to have a real picture, we need to have more than 100 sensor-based air quality monitoring stations which BMC is working on currently to cover for approximately 5sqkm area. To also strengthen mitigation measures we need to increase the number of such stations,” said Pimpale.