2 min readMumbaiFeb 26, 2026 12:28 AM IST
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) environment and climate change department drew less than one percent in the civic budget for the financial year 2026-27 announced on Wednesday. The environment and climate change department has been allocated Rs 159.82 crore for the upcoming fiscal year, which accounts for only 0.33 percent of the BMC’s capex fund of Rs. 48,164 crore.
A provision of Rs 76.16 crore was allocated in the revised estimates for FY 2025-26 for the climate department.
A key project which will draw the department’s focus in the coming year is implementing Project MANAS (Mumbai Air Network for Advanced Sciences) where the civic body is set to install a network of 75 new low cost sensors across Mumbai in collaboration with IIT Kanpur. While the city is currently home to 28 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS) that record the city’s AQI, the proposed MANAS portal will be an independent platform which will provide hyperlocal monitoring of 75 locations.
At present, the civic body implements air pollution mitigation measures through its 28-point guidelines across Mumbai’s construction sites. These include deploying misting and fogging machines and sprinklers. Over the past few months, the BMC has come down heavily on developers to install air quality monitoring stations with municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani on Wednesday stating that nearly 90 percent of developers have deployed the machines within worksites.
Announcing the budget Wednesday, the civic body said that in a bid to curb pollution, the department will be implementing localised interventions such as electric sweepers, mechanical power sweepers as well as misting machines at the ward level. Gagrani said AQI is determined by an array of factors. “Air pollution is a result of multiple factors which includes meteorological factors, vehicular emissions which can be controlled on an individual level and construction activity in the city which is being strictly monitored by the BMC,” said Gagrani.
The BMC said it is working towards change on ground to meet the city’s climate goals with focus on three core areas of environment protection, knowledge and information as well as environment and climate change.
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