BMC razes polluting furnaces of gold-silver units in Dharavi

Mumbai : Continuing the crusade to clear the air pollution in Mumbai, the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday swooped on at least four gold-silver jewellery plating units and demolished four furnaces that spewed out toxic smoke, officials said here.

The stringent action was taken by the local BMC Ward after complaints of massive pollutants being emitted from these furnaces used to melt the gold-silver for the plating purposes.

The latest action is pursuant to directives by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to the BMC Commissioner I. S. Chahal to tackle the menace of air pollution on top priority in all the 24 BMC Wards.

Accordingly, in the wider public health interest, the BMC has now started taking action even against other factors that result in the poor air quality index (AQI) in Mumbai, besides the usual culprits like construction sites, vehicular pollution, airborne dust particles, etc.

A BMC team cracked down on the four gold-silver smelting units and demolished four chimneys that billowed untreated smoke and raw gases in the atmosphere posing severe health hazards to the people in Dharavi and surroundings, said an official.

The action came a day after the Bombay High Court's stern directive to the BMC to stop transport of debris to and from construction sites in the city and also imposed a three-hour limit on fire-crackers – from 7-10 pm only - during the upcoming Diwali festival.

The BMC is now keeping tabs on other such small-micro units spread across other slum pockets in the city and suburbs where similar polluting enterprises are engaged in multiple businesses, said the official.