The BMC will finally have a dedicated staff for their environment department. The civic body will appoint one sub-engineer each in all the 25 administrative wards who will work as coordinator with the department. The proposal has been sent for administrative approval.

“The department will have a chief engineer with two deputy chief engineers and three executive engineers. Also, an assistant engineer will be appointed for all the seven zones with a sub engineer for coordination at ward level. A required staff will also be recruited. The new staff will have to carry out surprise visits, issue notices and penalise the violators and ensure that dust mitigation measures are carried out in wards,” said a civic source.

The environment department has had no dedicated staff since 2016. The department at present has only one deputy commissioner, who is responsible for formulating and executing plans for the environment. He has been assigned only one clerk, and a consultant along with their staff are assisting him in his work.

Degrading AQI of city

The importance of this department came into light after the air quality in the city worsened post-monsoon.

After facing criticism from the state government and the Bombay High Court for civic authorities’ inaction, the civic body issued 27-point guidelines on preventing dust pollution in the city in October 2023. The environment department played a role in formulating guidelines. Currently, the Environment Department of BMC is monitoring the AQI, checking the capacity of air pollution measurement devices to ensure they are installed in the correct locations, and formulating long-term and short-term measures to reduce air pollution.

Earlier, BMC’s Environment and Solid Waste Management (SWM) Department worked together under the deputy commissioner SWM. After separation in 2016, around 40,000 workers were allocated to the SWM department.