Mumbai Air Pollution: Bombay High Court orders BMC, MPCB to inspect 7 public project sites for air quality

The Bombay High Court Monday directed the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to conduct a joint inspection of seven government construction sites across Mumbai to ensure that air quality control norms were being complied with..The sites include locations forming part of the Bullet Train project, the Versova Bandra Sea Link project, the Mumbai Metro Rail Line 3 project, the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) project, the Mumbai Coastal Road project two road concretization projects in Mumbai suburbs and two sites for road concretization in Mumbai suburbs. A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice GS Kulkarni also permitted authorities to take action against the violators in the event they come across anyone flouting norms.“We direct that in case any of the stakeholders at these sites are not following norms, legal action shall also be taken by the BMC and the MPCB," the Court said. .It was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation on the deteriorating air quality in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region during which it raised concerns about the poor AQI in the city.The bench had earlier suggested the Maharashtra government to come up with a law similar to the statutory regime of Delhi to identify and resolve problems related to air pollution. The bench today asked Advocate General Birendra Saraf about the status of such legal regime. Saraf pointed out that the issue could only be addressed after officials who are in Nagpur for the Assembly session, return to Mumbai. "There should be a policy decision to follow this kind of framework. It always takes some time. The whole establishment, and higher officers are in Nagpur. The Assembly session will be over on December 20, 2023. Before that there was Diwali," Saraf said. The Court quipped that once it had passed orders on a subject, the government was expected to take the issue seriously."What we are wondering is what can be more important than this issue? Once it is brought to our notice, and we have passed orders, it is for you (government) to take it from there and take some decisions on the issue. You have to be serious," the Court said. .The Court also referred to a weekly report of a panel constituted by the High Court in the previous hearing. It found the air quality to have improved but the Air Quality Index was between 100 to 200 which was only moderate and not good."AQI is still largely at a moderate level, which is an indicator that such air quality will cause breathing discomfort for people with lung, and heart diseases, children and senior citizens. The satisfactory level is 51 to 100 AQI and accordingly the collective effort is needed to bring the AQI to below 50," the bench noted in its order today. .The High Court will hear the plea next on February 6, 2024.