Mumbai: BMC To Resume Construction Site Inspections And Air Pollution Measures After State Assembly Elections

Mumbai: After the conclusion of the state assembly elections, the BMC is set to resume its focus on construction site inspections, a task that was temporarily delayed during the election period. The civic authorities have instructed all the 24 administrative ward officials to take swift action against violators starting next week.

Additionally, a meeting has been called with the newly appointed deputy engineers for the BMC's environment department to discuss and implement measures to combat air pollution in the city.

Over the past two years, it has become increasingly evident that air quality in the city consistently worsens between November and February. As a precautionary measure, civic authorities had instructed developers in the first week of October to implement necessary steps to curb air pollution at their construction sites this year.

However, with around 60,000 civic officials and staff engaged in election duties for the state assembly elections since last month, inspections of construction sites have been severely hampered, leaving dedicated teams under-resourced.

"The staff at the ward level who were part of the special team were occupied with election duties, so we had to postpone actions in most of the wards. With the state assembly election results expected by Saturday, the staff will be able to resume their duties next week. Therefore, we have scheduled a meeting for Tuesday to discuss the next steps and formulate an action plan to mitigate dust pollution," said a senior civic official.

Each civic ward has a squad led by a senior official, with two engineers, a police officer, and a marshal. Smaller wards have two squads, mid-sized wards four, and larger wards six. To assist the understaffed BMC environment department, deputy engineers have been appointed in 20 out of 24 wards.

In accordance with the 29 guidelines, construction and infrastructure sites must install metal sheets around their perimeters, cover all buildings under construction with green cloth, jute sheets, or tarpaulin, and maintain continuous water spraying during demolition.

Civic officials have also been instructed to curb activities that contribute to air pollution, such as burning wood or other materials for cooking at construction sites and lighting bonfires.