Have Taken Steps To Install Pollution Indicators At Construction Sites: BMC To Bombay High Court

The BMC made this submission before a division bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice M. S. Karnik in a suo moto PIL on poor air quality in Mumbai.

On 09 January 2025, the Court had issued a slew of directions. One direction was to take action against construction units, including halting construction, if the pollution indicators were not installed.

During the hearing today, the BMC submitted that it has instituted steps to install the devices. It also submitted that to centrally connect the pollution indicators for appropriate surveillance, it has consulted with IIT Bombay and Kanpur.

BMC also stated that it would consult the IITs on the issue of the installation of CCTVs at construction sites. BMC further submitted that before the next date of hearing, it will implement the directions issued by the Court.

The Court had also directed the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to undertake a pollution audit of various industries falling in different categories, in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and more particularly the red category industries.

MPCB today submitted that a third party audit of all the red category industries has been carried out and sought time to file the audit report.

The Court granted BMC 6 weeks time to file a compliance report and for MPCB to file the audit report.

The Court will now hear the matter after summer vacations.

Case title: High Court Of Judicature At Bombay On Its Own Motion vs. State Of Maharashtra & Ors (SMPIL/3/2023)

Previous reports of the case can be accessed here, here and here.