Mumbai: Final anti-pollution guidelines issued, task forces to hit streets soon

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has issued final antipollution guidelines for construction sites and industries The civic bodyrsquos wardlevel task forces accompanied by police officers will start making rounds in the next two to three days These squads can issue stopwork notices and seal off work sites immediatelyCivic chief I S Chahal has ordered all ward officers to deploy the squads to prevent the illegal dumping of construction waste late at nightOn Friday Chahal had held a meeting with officials and all authorities to tackle the pollution menace On Wednesday he issued the final guidelines according to which each ward will have a fourmember committee The number of task force teams in each ward will depend on their size Small wards such A and B will have two teams Midsized ones like N T and M East will have four each and large ones like L K West and K East will have sixEach task force will comprise two engineers a police officer and a marshal Every team will be provided with vehicles and be led by a senior officerldquoWe have issued orders to all ward officers The task forces will start working in two to three daysrdquo said a BMC officialThe squads have been tasked with videographing work sites If it is observed that provisions are not being adhered to stringent action can be taken immediatelyAccording to a circular issued by the BMC the timeline for the procurement of sprinklers and smog guns is 15 and 30 days respectively Sensorbased air pollution monitors must be deployed at work sites and immediate action should be taken on observing that pollution levels are above the limit This monitoring shall be made available for inspection to BMC authorities as and when demanded the circular readMinister SpeakGuardian Minister Deepak Kesarkar said the BMCrsquos dustmitigation project will start showing results in two months ldquoI have visited Lucknow in the past There is a machine that can cause tiny particles in the air to accumulate and deposit them on the ground We need to look at the cost of such equipment We also discussed this with IIT Bombay The Parliament building has antivirus filters but they are too costlyrdquo said KesarkarHe added ldquoTraffic as well as the Coastal Road Metro rail and building construction and dumping grounds are major contributors to air pollution Microparticles are the major reason for air pollution in Mumbai Gases from dumping grounds are a major concern It is due to unscientific deposits of many years We are trying to find a solution Even the leachate is highly pollutedrdquoConstruction site rulesAt least 35foothigh metal sheets must be erected around the periphery of construction projects taller than 70 metres and with layouts over one acre The height of these sheets for those less than one acre should be at least 25 metres All the underconstruction buildings have to be compulsorily enclosed by green cloth jute sheets and tarpaulin from all sides All the structures under demolition shall be covered with tarpaulin and green cloth jute sheet from top to bottom There shall be a continuous spray of water the circular readWater fogging must also be carried out during the loading and unloading of materials at construction sites using stationary or mobile antismog guns Loose soil sand construction materials and debris have to be stored in a dedicated area and properly barricaded fully protected with tarpaulinsVehicle wasterelated normsAll vehicles carrying construction material must be fully covered so that debris does not become airborne during transportation and the vehicle must not be overloaded All construction sites must have CCTV cameras along the periphery of their work sites to ensure that vehicles ply only after their tyres are cleaned and they are not overloaded Grinding cutting drilling sawing and trimming work must be carried out in enclosed areas Waste generated within the site of work must be transported to designated unloading sites strictly as per the BMCrsquos construction and demolition CampD waste management plan After unloading debris vehicles must be washed and cleaned thoroughly Vehicles carrying CampD material if found not following guidelines vehicles will be seized and impounded The transport commissioner will clamp down on the overloading of vehicles uncovered vehicles and those spilling construction materials on roads Developers have been ordered to engage only vehicles that have a tracking systemPublic infrastructure sitesAccording to the circular ldquoAll the BMC work sites like bridges and flyovers shall have barricading of 25 feet All the Metro works above ground shall be covered with barricading of 25 feet height The construction site shall be covered with tarpaulin green cloth and jute sheet The smog gunswater sprinklers shall be used during construction Mitigation measures suggested by BMC are mandatory for all government agenciesrdquoPSU industriesThe Maharashtra Pollution Control Board MPCB will monitor the air pollution emitted from industrial entities such as BPCL HPCL RCF Tata Power and industries in nearby MIDC daily for the next month and take appropriate action The data must be shared with the additional municipal commissioner