4 min readMumbaiJul 2, 2026 12:45 AM IST
First published on: Jul 1, 2026 at 09:30 PM IST
A day after the tragic incident in Chembur, in which an 11-year-old boy lost his life and four others were injured after a peepal tree fell on a school bus, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities announced the suspension of three officers. Additional Municipal Commissioner Avinash Dhakane told The Indian Express that the suspended officers include an assistant superintendent of garden and tree department and a sub engineer and an assistant engineer of the civic roads department. The suspension orders were issued on late Wednesday evening.
The civic administration also formed a two-member committee headed by deputy municipal commissioner (engineering) and deputy municipal commissioner (special engineering) to investigate the matter. The panel will carry out a thorough inquiry into the subject and present the findings to Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide by next week.
The administration said that the three officers will remain suspended till the inquiry report is submitted.
The tree that fell on the school van was located at the 11th Road in Chembur’s Shubhash Nagar locality. Civic officials maintained while the tree was 70 years old, no complaint owing to its structural stability was lodged with the BMC.
The tree was also located adjoining the road, which was concretised earlier in January this year.
Dhakane said visual inspection carried out at the accident spot showed that the periphery adjoining the girth of the tree was concretised, which is likely to have prevented the roots from growing.
“The roots of a tree either grow vertically deep under the ground or spread across horizontally. In this case there was no scope for growth since the entire periphery was concretised. As a result, the trunk became weak unable to bear the weight of the tree leading to its collapse,” Dhakane said on Wednesday. He said the roads department has been notified to issue a showcause notice against the contractor involved in the project.
Meanwhile, civic records show the BMC’s garden and tree department had earlier issued showcause notices to the roads department raising an alarm by stating that the excavation work being carried out around the tree was done in an unscientific manner. While the first notice was served in April 2025, the second notice was served in January 2026.
“It’s true that the garden department had first issued notices. However, when they saw that the contractors were not abiding by the rules they should have escalated the matter to higher issues which they didn’t do. Hence they are equally accountable to the mishap,” Dhakane said.
The administration’s move of taking action against its own officials came after the BMC’s standing committee on Wednesday adjourned its official proceedings and demanded a thorough inquiry into the matter. Ganesh Khankar, BJP councillor and Leader of the House, raised a point of order demanding immediate action on the three officers.
“The BMC needs to frame a proper policy for preservation of the tree as well as the tree basins. This is the second such incident reported this year where a child lost his life after a tree fell on them. An investigation needs to be launched on this entire process of road works anda steering committee needs to be appointed for accountability,” Khankar said.
Yashodar Phanase, senior councillor from Shiv Sena (UBT), said, “The administration needs to carry out an immediate audit of all the trees in Mumbai where road works are undergoing by a third party auditor and the report needs to be presented to the committee.”
The BMC has suspended three officers and formed a two-member inquiry panel after an 11-year-old boy died when a tree fell on a school bus in Chembur. (File) 
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