BMC issues 120 ‘stop work’ notices in 24 hours, after FIR against builder

Speaking to the Indian Express, civic officials from BMC’s environment department said that more than 1,000 intimation letters have been sent to several entities following which stop work notices are being issued to them.

Sudhakar Shinde, additional municipal commissioner, said that ward officers are carrying out daily inspections of all the construction sites to check if all the dust mitigation norms are being implemented by them.

“At first, intimation letters were issued to the stakeholders asking them to immediately implement dust mitigation norms that we have issued on October 26. For those who are found not adhering to the norms are being handed over ‘stop work’ notices and those who are still not following the rules are being booked by lodging police complaints,” Shinde told Express on Tuesday.

Earlier till November 20, the BMC had sent 343 stop work notices to several contractors and entities, civic officials maintained that the list gets updated every 24 hours after each of the 24 municipal wards send their daily ‘action taken report’ to the civic headquarters.

Civic officials also maintained that most of the violators are from western suburbs, including wards such as K/East (Andheri East), H/East (BKC and Bandra East), which have a large number of infrastructures works going on over there.

Earlier this month, the BMC had issued “stop work” notices to private contractors who were executing construction work for the Mumbai Metro project. Besides this, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) issued closure notices to city-based units of CEAT tyres and JSW Green Cements for flouting air pollution mitigation norms.

The Indian Express from October 20 published its series, “Death by Breath” that highlighted various issues pertaining to the rise in air pollution in Mumbai. Following this, the BMC and MPCB issued guidelines to mitigate this issue.

Earlier this week, civic sources said that the BMC may allow the contractors to reduce the height of tin sheets that are erected around the periphery of construction sites. In its set of construction guidelines, the BMC had stated that at the place of any construction site tin sheets of 35 feet should be erected to prevent displacement of dust.

“During our inspection in the western suburbs, we found that almost all the construction sites have erected green-coloured curtains around them. However, the stakeholders have requested us to reduce the mandate of tin sheets to 25 feet from 35 feet, we are working on that and a call on this will be taken by the commissioner,” Shinde said.

According to civic sources, real estate bodies stated that in order to erect taller tin sheets, they will require additional space that will enable them to create adequate foundation and lateral space to ensure there the sheets are held tight during the course of strong winds.

Action taken so far

Vehicles transporting construction debris without covering have been fined and Rs 41 lakh has been recovered in penalty.

The MPCB issued closure notices to units of JSW Greens cement private limited and CEAT Tyres on November 1 and 2, for flouting air pollution norms. They also sent out notices to firms, including Hindustan Petroleum, Tata Power’s Thermal Station, Agis Logistics, Rashtriya Chemical Fertilisers and Sealord Containers, asking them to adhere to environmental norms.

Earlier in November, the BMC issued “stop work” notices to J Kumar Infra Projects Limited which is the contractor involved with Mumbai Metro Rail and also asked the authorities involved with the bullet train project to implement dust mitigation norms.

The MPCB also issued notices to RMC plants of Mumbai Coastal Road Project on November 8, asking them to adhere to the norms.