Blaming Mumbai’s deteriorating air quality on the smoke being emitted by refineries in and around the city, commissioner and administrator of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Iqbal Singh Chahal, said on Thursday that his office has raised the issue with the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas so that smoke emitted from the refineries can be checked.
Mumbai on Thursday recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 315, categorised as “very poor”.
This was worse than Delhi’s “poor” AQI of 263. It was the fourth consecutive day that Mumbai recorded AQI above 300.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Chahal said, “There are a few refineries in and around Mumbai, like Bharat Petroleum, Rashtriya Chemicals and Indian Oil… due to day-to-day activities, there is emission of smoke from the refineries.”
“The onus of managing these refineries lies with the Union government. I have brought this issue to the Union ministry so that it is able to put a check on the emission levels of these refineries, as this is an important issue and from next week, foreign delegates will start visiting Mumbai because of the G20 summit,” he added.
While weather experts had attributed ongoing construction work for infrastructure projects as a reason behind the deteriorating AQI in Mumbai, Chahal denied this.
“It is only because of these refineries that the AQI of Mumbai is getting affected. Construction work in Mumbai has been going on for sometime now. it’s not that the works have started just now. Usually, the emitted particulate matter gets dispersed with the wind, but due to the onset of winter, Mumbai is experiencing slow air speed and the particulate matter is not blowing away. Therefore, these residual matters are lingering in lower atmosphere, creating a smog-like situation,” he said.
Several areas in Mumbai showed AQI readings above 350, including Mazagaon at 372. Chembur’s AQI was recorded at 342, followed by Malad (343), Colaba (326), Andheri (324), Worli (312), Bhandup (303) and Borivali (235). This came on a day the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that Mumbai may experience light spells of rain starting early next week. “There is a possibility of thunderstorms in southern India, which may lead to light showers in Mumbai. This will result in a decline in daily temperature and may improve air speed and quality as well,” said an official from IMD.
Mumbai recorded a day temperature of 31 degrees Celsius and minimum temperature of 21 degrees Celsius on Thursday.
Experts said the AQI will improve only after there is an increase in air speed. “By end of this week, northeasterly winds are also likely to blow over Mumbai and this will lead to a fall in temperature… improving the quality of air. Since with increase in air speed, pollutants would be dispersed,” said Mahesh Palwat, meteorologist from Skymet Weathers Private Limited.
With activists and representatives of citizen’s associations demanding that BMC should come up with guidelines to mitigate air pollution problem, civic officials said that the primary notification needs to come from the government. “If there is any on ground policy that is to be imposed, then guidelines should come from the state and the pollution control board. The BMC is only responsible for implementing the guidelines,” said a civic official.
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