Bombay high court slams BMC for ‘doing nothing’ to curb air pollution in Mumbai, orders daily surprise visits at construction sites and RMC plants | Mumbai News
Mumbai: Summoning BMC chief Bhushan Gagrani for the second consecutive day, the Bombay high court came down heavily on the civic administration for failing to implement its own air pollution mitigating guidelines. It accused BMC of “doing nothing” to curb pollution and of poor oversight that failed to ensure dust-mitigation at construction sites.Stopping construction work was not the solution, constant and surprise monitoring with coordinated reporting from ground was, said the HC, which was hearing a suo motu PIL on unchecked air pollution in Mumbai.A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad let the dust settle only after “concrete suggestions” to rein in non-compliant sites. They directed that civic squads begin “random, but periodic surprise visits daily” from December 29 and asked BMC to publicise its 28-point guidelines to improve the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) in various media.The HC suggested that the squads be given button cameras and GPS trackers and members do not carry their cellphones during site visits. One phone can be with the driver for any emergency. “No one should know of the visit,” the CJ stressed.Questioning why the compliance was so slack, the HC pointed out that there were at least 125 big construction projects worth minimum Rs 1,000 crore each which could easily afford the cost to implement the mitigating measures to curb pollution.The squads could start at least with the 36 sites that were visited by the HC-appointed inspection committee, senior counsel Darius Khambata, assisting as amicus curiae (friend of court) said. The HC said there should be fear in the mind of project proponents and BMC must publish consequences of non-compliance of pollution norms.The HC, in the first half of the hearing, grilled the BMC on the widespread non-compliance of its mitigating guidelines and posted the matter at 4pm summoning Gagrani again, observing that its senior counsel S U Kamdar “didn’t have instructions” to provide proper suggestions. “How many sites visited since 2pm yesterday?” the CJ asked. When Kamdar said of the 94 squads, 39 visited sites, the HC expressed dissatisfaction. Kamdar, and later Gagrani, said many staffers were on poll duty. The HC was unimpressed. “You should have applied for exemption from the election commission.” Janak Dwarkadas, senior counsel for the intervenor NGO Vanshakti, said, “It appears the right to life of citizens is subservient to election duty.” He suggested that BMC must stop new construction permissions if compliance at existing ones is a problem. The HC orally agreed.Tejesh Dande, counsel for NMMC, said the Navi Mumbai civic body will in 6 months add 52 more AQI monitors every 2 sq km and wants CCTV cameras at every construction site.The CJ asked about steps for construction workers. MPCB senior counsel Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said it has set up a panel to meet with the labour board for action to ensure safety of workers and of 22 RMC sites visited said seven were found non-compliant.The HC will now hear the PIL on Jan 20, 2026 for compliance.
