‘Dust-free Mumbai’ plan gathers dust since 2011

While pollution in Delhi has reached alarming levels, efforts in Mumbai to curb it have fallen flat. In a bid to reduce pollution caused by dust, BMC had proposed a “dust-free Mumbai” however five years down the line, the project has made no headway and still remains on paper.

Under “dust-free Mumbai”, the civic body had planned to clean dusty roads with non-potable water. For the same, BMC was to identify select roads and clean them with water drawn from wells and bore-wells. The project was the brainchild of Shiv Sena MP and corporator Rahul Shewale who in 2011 had proposed that major roads be cleaned with non-potable water to reduce dust pollution and render the city clean. At the time of tabling the proposal, Mr Shewale, who was also chairman of BMC standing committee, said that with heavy construction activities underway in the city, dust pollution was causing respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis; skin diseases; and various other allergies. As for today, Mr Shewale put the blame on apathy of civic administration. “I take regular review meetings for implementation of projects proposed during my tenure as a standing committee chairman. Accordingly, I had a joint meeting with senior civic officials a few months back in which I again asked them to initiate efforts to kick-start the ‘dust-free Mumbai’ project. But no action has been taken so far,” Mr Shewale told The Asian Age.

He said they had formed an expert committee which prepared an action plan for the project. However, top civic officials including BMC chief Ajoy Mehta were not serious about implementing the project, said Mr Shewale.

Deputy municipal commissioner Vijay Balamwar (solid waste management) said the proposal needed to be checked for feasibility. Mr Mehta remained unavailable for comment.