MUMBAI: Beyond established two factors contributing to Mumbai’s air pollution — vehicular emissions and construction dust – the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has identified sodium chloride particles originating from seawater as significant contributors to the city’s deteriorating air quality, saying they react with pollutants released by vehicles and industries to produce atmospheric haze.
An analysis of AQI data from the past two years by Hindustan Times indicates a seasonal deterioration in air quality, with Mumbai largely recording satisfactory air quality through much of the year before slipping into the moderate category between November and February. The civic administration also acknowledged the seasonal challenge, with pollution levels expected to require closer monitoring during the winter months. MUMBAI: BMC is planning to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse data from air-quality sensors installed at construction sites and identify suspicious interruptions in monitoring. The proposed AI system will analyse recurring shutdown patterns, frequency of interruptions and the last recorded readings to identify sites where data may be deliberately manipulated.
However, he clarified that particulate matter continues to be the primary concern, with PM2.5 and PM10, largely associated with vehicular emissions and construction dust, contributing 18% each to Mumbai’s air pollution. However, despite the current deterioration in air quality, the civic administration pointed to an improvement in the number of good and satisfactory air-quality days (see box), while data on the Union environment ministry’s PRANA portal shows that the city’s PM10 concentration declined by approximately 48% between 2017-18 and 2025-26. Separately, the civic body is in the process of installing air pollution control devices (APCDs) at 10 crematoria.
Civic officials said the administration was also exploring the possibility of transitioning all crematoria to electric ones. Addressing a press conference on Thursday, additional municipal commissioner Avinash Dhakane, who oversees the civic body’s environment and climate change department, said a source identification study conducted by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) had identified sodium chloride (NaCl) — the salt compound present in seawater — as one of the major pollutants.
