MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday summoned the civic chief and the member secretary of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) after a court-appointed panel found prima facie non-compliance with air pollution control norms at all 36 construction and infrastructure sites it inspected.
A bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad directed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Bhushan Gagrani and the MPCB member secretary to remain personally present at 11 am on Tuesday to explain the inaction by officials. The court said stop-work notices ought to be issued at sites found violating norms.
The observations were based on a ground-reality report prepared by a four-member committee, which flagged widespread lapses in dust control and site management. Demolition work at a government colony in Bandra East—where a new High Court complex is planned—was found to be generating heavy dust without barricades, wet coverings or suppression measures. The panel also noted gas cylinders being used for cutting steel in open, unenclosed public spaces.
Senior counsel Darius Khambata, acting as amicus curiae, told the court that on-ground implementation of civic guidelines was largely absent and compliance, where visible, was “cosmetic”. When BMC sought a short adjournment to study the report, the bench declined, stating that the officials must appear the next day.
The committee inspected sites including the bullet train project at Bandra Kurla Complex, an RMC plant and Metro works, and found a recurring pattern of incomplete or inconsistent compliance, with the RMC plant showing the most serious violations. At the MPCB air monitoring station in Mahape, Navi Mumbai, the panel described conditions as “deeply alarming”, noting that the outdoor AQI display had been non-functional for days.
In south Mumbai localities such as Fort, Cuffe Parade and Colaba, most surveyed construction sites were found almost entirely non-compliant with basic pollution control measures. Across 17 under-construction sites, three RMC plants, seven road sites and five infrastructure projects, compliance was described as reactive rather than proactive, intensifying only after the court took suo motu cognisance of deteriorating air quality.
The panel recommended urgent enforcement of existing guidelines, real-time monitoring, accountability at every site and coordinated action to prevent further deterioration of air quality and public health risks.
