Worli has Mumbai's worst air at AQI 164 as post-monsoon pollution climbs

Mumbai: Mumbai's air has begun to worsen as the monsoon recedes. In the Central Pollution Control Board's bulletin for Thursday, October 8, Worli recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 164, the highest in the city that day. The city-wide AQI was 120, up 43 points in 48 hours.

Deonar (154) and Navy Nagar-Colaba (151) were also above 150. Readings were elevated at Bandra East (147), Mazgaon (142), Bandra-Kurla Complex (130), Kurla (128) and Chembur (126). Only 20 of the city's 30 monitoring stations were working that day.

With the rain gone, construction and redevelopment work has picked up again, raising dust levels. On October 2 the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation announced an Air Pollution Control and Enforcement Action Plan 2026. Every civic ward is to identify at least ten pollution hotspots, among them large construction sites, infrastructure works, spots where waste is burnt in the open, debris dumps and congested junctions, each watched by a designated officer.

Sites that break the civic body's 28-point dust-control rules will first get show-cause notices and then stop-work orders. Developers and contractors must keep 100 to 500 metres of adjoining road clean, depending on the size of their project. If a station's AQI stays above 300 for three days in a row, construction and other polluting work within two kilometres of it can be halted.

Source: Mumbai Live