BMC to launch app for Mumbai residents to file complaints on air pollution

The BMC is working on rolling out a mobile application to be used by its ward-level officials who have already begun to inspect construction sites in the city for air pollution mitigation measures. Municipal commissioner IS Chahal, during an interaction with mediapersons on Thursday, had announced that the application is being developed. The application will geotag visited locations and document compliances, with a pilot project slated for initial implementation in one of the city's wards.The data collected by officers will be transformed into dashboards, facilitating the daily monitoring of progress in the battle against air pollution concerns. A municipal officer said, "Over the past two weeks, most wards were only involved in giving intimation notices to construction sites as the timeline for procurement of sprinklers was to be 15 days and for procurement of smog guns was to be 30 days from issuance of this circular on October 25. However, as action is likely to begin from the end of the month in a full- fledged manner, such a mobile application would be of great help to understand how each ward is inspecting these sites and pressing for compliances to be followed.In the wake of air pollution mitigation measures issued by BMC on October 25, municipal officials said that it has physically handed over intimation notices with regards to the same to close to 1,000 construction sites across the city, while over 6,000 sites have been informed of the same by BMC, uploading the circular on the building proposal website of the municipal corporation.