Metro project developers served notice for violating air pollution norms

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Wednesday issued notices to various infrastructure developers involved with Coastal Road and Metro rail projects in the city. While the BMC issued “stop work” notices to J Kumar Infra Projects ltd, MPCB issued show cause notices to 14 Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) plants across the city, including four being operated by Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

The other RMC plants that received MPCB notices are units owned by Avighnaa Contractors, Century Estates, Swayam Realtors and Traders, Nagarjuna Construction Company, Ahluwalia Contracts, Apco infratech and ITD Cementation India Limited. J Kumar Infra has been carrying out construction of Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro corridor, and the terminal section of this project is coming up at Income Tax Office (ITO) junction in BKC.

Swapnaja Kshirsagar, assistant municipal commissioner of H-East ward, said, "We had served an intimation notice listing out all mitigation measures to the contractor executing the [Metro] works a week ago. During a follow-up visit, it was found they were not being implemented. A stop-work notice will be in effect till compliance. We understand that enforcing some of the norms that require installation of heavy machinery will take time, but simple safety measures can be easily adopted." Rise in pollution at BKC is a concern since it is also seeing construction of the Bullet train terminus. H-East ward officials said they have had meetings with Bullet train authorities, too, explaining the mitigation measures to them. A survey of all RMCs across Mumbai region launched five days ago found 14 sites flouting the pollution control norms. While the MPCB has to decide whether such units are polluting the air or not, the final action has to be taken by the civic or government nodal agencies such as the BMC and the MMRDA.