BMC fines two contractors Rs2L each for flouting air pollution norms

Sudhakar Shinde, additional municipal commissioner, told The Indian Express on Friday that the BMC also issued showcause notices to Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) and J Kumar Infraprojects, who are contractors for the Bullet Train and Mumbai Metro project, for not adhering to dust mitigation norms at construction sites.

When contacted, a spokesperson for the Bullet Train project said BMC’s inspection was part of a routine visit.

On Friday afternoon, Shinde and a delegation of civic officials carried out an inspection of multiple sites in Mumbai where construction work was underway for various infrastructure projects. Civic officials said during the visit, they found that ME Infra and NC enterprise, who were conducting road work on Grant Road, were found to be flouting rules.

“The BMC’s air pollution mitigation norms, that were issued on October 25, mandates barricading at construction sites, including continuous washing and sanitation of the premises. However, during the inspection we found that these rules were not being followed at the site and the labourers deployed at the spot didn’t have protective gears. As a result, we implemented a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on them,” said the civic body through a statement.

Shinde said the team also visited construction sites of the Bullet Train project and Mumbai Metro Line 3 in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC).

“In BKC we found that the contractors working on both these sites were not adhering to dust mitigation norms. As a result, we are issuing show cause notices for paying penalties to MEIL and J Kumar, who are the contractors of Bullet Train and Metro. We issued multiple notices to these contractors earlier but still they refused to follow norms. It seems unless we push the violators hard, they won’t follow the rules we cite,” Shinde told The Indian Express on Friday.

Meanwhile, when contacted a spokesperson of the Bullet Train project said, “We are aware about the inspection visit however, we are yet to receive any notice from there end. The inspection appeared routine to us. We are adhering to all the norms that have been mentioned by BMC officials.”

In November, the BMC had issued a stop work notice to J Kumar infra for not following dust mitigation norms during construction work. Before issuing the stop work notice, the civic body had also issued intimation notices multiple times, asking the firm to adhere to the norms.

The officials also said that between October and November end, multiple intimation letters were also sent to the contractors of Bullet Train project to make sure they adhered to dust mitigation norms.

As part of its ‘Death by Breath’ series, highlighting the air pollution woes of Mumbai, The Indian Express had earlier highlighted that BKC emerged as one of the most affected pockets in the city, consistently recording a ‘Poor’ AQI level of over 200. Express had on October 20, reported that during a visit at the Bullet Train project site in BKC, no dust mitigation measures were implemented at the construction site.