BMC's seven-step strategy to reduce air pollution in Mumbai

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday presented Rs 52,619.07 crore budget for the year 2023-24, and announced a seven-step strategy with an objective to reduce air pollution emissions.

The steps have been announced under the 'Clean Air Mumbai' initiative amid rising concerns over deteriorating air quality in the city.

The BMC has also planned to install air purifier at five most crowded areas - Dahisar toll naka, Mulund check naka, Mankhurd, Kalanagar junction and Haji Ali junction.

To implement the measures, the BMC has allocated a budget of Rs 25 crore.

The budget said that the four major contributing factors to Mumbai’s deteriorating air quality were identified as: Road and construction dust, traffic congestion, Industries and Power sector and waste burning.

• Sustainable and clean construction and demolition

Construction guidelines for builders to reduce dust from construction sites; project proponents will be directed to
measures such as:
- Provide dust screens along the external face of buildings where construction/ finishing work is in progress.
- Sprinkle water on these curtains and at ground floor in the open spaces.
- Washing of tyres of all vehicles while exiting from site.
- Covering of all vehicles transporting debris/ construction material.
- Providing debris chutes during construction.
- NOC from MPCB is insisted while approving RMC plants.

• Road dust reduction measures

- Mechanical/ e-power sweepers for dust cleaning
- Procurement of sprinklers to settle dust on roads and footpaths
- Deployment of vehicle mounted misting equipment
- Deployment of vehicle mounted air purification units
- Ionisation based air purification system for dust mitigation

• Sustainable and clean transport measures

- Electrification of BMC vehicles and provision of charging infrastructure
- 3000 electric BEST buses are being procured
- Conversion of old BMC diesel/ petrol vehicles into CNG vehicles
- Fully Adaptive Traffic Control systems are already installed at 258 junctions. They are to be upgraded to latest technologies and impact on the traffic flow and pollution would be studied and to be further expanded for balance 395 junctions.

• Sustainable waste management measures

- Communication and awareness for sustainable segregation in households
- Monitoring and enforcement of ban on waste burning
- Construction of ‘Waste to Energy’ plant of 600 TPD capacity is in progress at Deonar dumping ground (phase 1)
- Biomining of legacy waste at Deonar dumping ground
- Installation of 4 TPD domestic hazardous waste processing units at eight locations.

• Ecologically sustainable urban greening projects

1 lakh trees to be planted through ecologically sustainable planting practices. Plantation at following prominent sites is in progress:
- Marol Industries Association urban forest – along Mithi River
- Sahityasamrat Annabhau Sathe Udyan– 4,500 trees
- Mahakali Caves urban forest – 30,000 trees
- Swami Vivekanand Udyan – 9,000 trees
- Bharat Van Udyan, Marol – 6,000 trees
- Avenue planting on high pollution roads to create green buffers.
- Adopting sustainable micro-greening guidelines to educate citizens about native species and planting methods.

• Effective monitoring
  

- Robust air quality monitoring system: Installation of 5 numbers of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS)
- Ward level assessment of emissions under NCAP with support from MPCB, NEERI, IIT-Bombay and other partner
institutions.
- Commencing hotspot monitoring - “hyper local monitoring” to influence city’s action plan.
- Creating a Clean Air Coordination Committee inviting all agencies and partners related to air pollution in Mumbai’s air
shed, with quarterly meetings.
- Consultants to be appointed to coordinate with the refineries, power plants, and other pollution emitting companies
- Coordination with BMC’s climate cell and alignment with climate budget.

• Communication and Awareness Campaigns

- Partnership with mainstream media to run air pollution awareness campaigns
- Formation of eco-clubs in schools and colleges on environment friendly lifestyle
- Collaboration with NGOs in promotion and conservation of the environment
- Training of sanitation workers for better road dust cleaning practices
- Issuing Public Health Advisories for citizens on days when air quality worsens in the city (similar to warnings issued on heavy rain days in Mumbai by IMD).