Mumbaikars to get respite from poor air as BMC to come up with measures to control air pollution

Mumbai: The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation will soon prepare a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to control rising air pollution and dust generated, especially by the under-construction infra projects and demolition works. The decision was taken in a review meeting held in the BMC headquarters on Wednesday, March 9 evening.

A high-level meeting with concerned departments to chalk out a strategy to tackle air pollution will be held on next Monday, said a senior civic official.

Additional air purifiers, AQI monitoring stations to come up across city

The BMC will undertake a handful measures to improve the air quality of Mumbai and in accordance with the same, the civic agency will install Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) in Sewri, Ghatkopar, Govandi, Charkop in Kandivali and Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udhyan at Byculla zoo. These new air purifying stations will be operational by May 15, 2023, said the civic officials.

The civic body will also be inviting tenders this month to install air purifiers at Haji Ali, Mankhurd, Kalanagar, Dahisar and Mulund. Additionally, the BMC will also procure 200 mobile air-purifier vehicles which will be assisting in mitigating the dust particles generated from roads and areas where construction works are underway.

BMC to augment strength of sweeping machines

Presently, the BMC has 27 mechanical sweepers which cleans 293 km of roads daily. The civic body will augment its strength and buy nine new electrical sweeping vehicles to clean 28 km of roads by each vehicles daily.

Other measures to be taken by BMC to tackle air pollution:

Two waste processing centres will be set up at Gorai and Navi Mumbai for scientifically processing the debris generated from construction sites.  The capacity of these centres will be around 1,200 metric tonnes per day.

The waste-to-energy plant at Deonar dumping ground will be operational by October 2025. It will produce 4 megawatt of electricity by processing 600 tonnes of waste. 

The BMC will set up 25 electric vehicle charging stations in the city to encourage people to use electric vehicles.