State pushes Mumbai builders to use precast material to curb pollution | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: To contain rising air pollution levels in Mumbai, the state government plans to encourage the use of precast components in construction. State environment minister Pankaja Munde said the government is framing a policy that will offer real estate companies and contractors incentives to switch to precast construction, vis-à-vis building these components on-site.

Munde, who underlined that prefabricated building components would be manufactured outside Mumbai, said, “We have already taken action against ongoing construction works for pollution control. Precast construction will help developers to continue work without impacting the climate. This will be a win-win for them and will reduce air pollution drastically.” She said the policy would be applicable to both private and public construction projects.

Prefabricated construction minimises carbon emissions as precast concrete components are manufactured off-site in a controlled environment. Traditional on-site construction methods often involve extensive operations leading to air pollution, higher energy consumption and high greenhouse emissions.

Although manufacturing these components outside the city will increase transportation costs, it will lower the consumption of resources such as steel and cement, while also enabling strict quality control, according to officials from the state environment department.

Rajesh Prajapati, public relations and media committee chairperson of MCHI-CREDAI, an umbrella body of real estate developers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), said such a policy would usher a paradigm shift for the industry. “We are not against such steps as air pollution is a major concern in Mumbai but it needs careful deliberation as there are many factors that will impact the industry. For instance, what happens if a developer does not have a site outside the city? Where will he manufacture the components? In that case, is the government going to make arrangements for such units? We will have to study whether such a policy will lead to an increase in time and costs.”

In January this year, the state environment department and local bodies stared cracking down on construction sites that contributed to a high Air Quality Index (AQI) in their vicinity. Many sites had been served notices to either halt construction work or take corrective measures such as sprinkling water etc to reduce air pollution arising out of construction activity.

Munde said a comprehensive policy to curb pollution will soon be unveiled by the environment department. “The work of the task force and drawing a road map to control pollution in Mumbai is also underway. Various other departments and agencies like the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are being taking into confidence to fix their roles in implementation of the policy,” she said.

Apart from construction sites, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and BMC are also taking action against bakeries and restaurants that depend on traditional cooking methods that use coal and firewood. These establishments have been served notices to switch their ovens to non-polluting energy sources such as electricity, LPG and PNG by the first week of July.

Munde also said her department is taking steps to make sure that Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) set up by cooperative housing societies were functioning according to protocol. “Large cooperative societies have set up STPs, but they are not being operated properly. We will take steps for stricter monitoring to ensure that societies utilise them,” she said.