BMC Halts Road Digging Permits To Tackle Air Pollution

Grappling with the air pollution problem, the Mumbai civic body on Tuesday decided against granting fresh permissions for the digging of roads in the city.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner and administrator Bhushan Gagrani clarified that the road work to repair water supply pipelines has been exempted, the civic body stated in a release.

"The road digging work has been identified as a key factor in exacerbating air pollution," the BMC said.

Civic officials said the construction projects found violating regulations are issued show cause notices and work stop orders.

Stop work notices were served on 33 construction projects in the Byculla area and 45 projects in Borivali (East) till Tuesday evening, a day after the BMC ordered the suspension of work at projects of builders or government agencies in these areas in view of the poor air quality and AQI of 200.

In a bid to reduce pollution caused by construction projects, BMC has issued guidelines comprising 28 points.

Additionally, project developers, building contractors, and architectural project (mechanical and electrical) contractors are now mandated to prepare an Environmental Management Plan.

As per the directives of the BMC commissioner, the Environment and Climate Change Department has inspected 877 construction projects from November 2024 until now, assessing adherence to the guidelines and EMP compliance.