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According to officials, the civic body on Wednesday issued a stop work notice to contractors at the project site at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) after inspections flagged several violations related to dust control and air quality management.
Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court came down heavily on the BMC for “turning a blind eye” to the issue of air pollution in the city and doing “nothing” to reduce the problem.
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It raised questions as to how the civic body approved over 125 construction projects worth over Rs 1,000 crore in a small city like Mumbai, and warned against giving any further permissions for construction if the air pollution situation persists.
The Bullet Train project is being implemented by the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), a joint venture of the Union Railway Ministry and the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
All construction activities involving excavation, digging and soil removal at the BKC site have been stopped with immediate effect, a civic official said, and work will resume only after the air pollution control guidelines are completely followed by the contractors.
He said some initial activities can continue subject to civic approval.
This is the second notice issued to the contractors.
A senior civic official said that on December 2, inspection squads found that air pollution mitigation norms were being violated at the site, following which the BMC served a show cause notice.
He said, during a follow-up inspection this week, officials found that earlier corrective measures were only partially implemented or were not as per the prescribed standards, following which the civic body had to take strict action.
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The official said the inspection revealed deficiencies, including inadequate barricade height, delayed installation of air-quality monitoring devices, open vehicles carrying construction material, absence of water sprinkling on internal roads and improper handling of construction debris.
The civic body said the stop work order will remain in force until all mandatory dust and air pollution control measures are fully implemented at the site.
The 508 km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor is India’s first bullet train project.