Even as concerns over poor air quality cast a haze over the Mumbai Marathon being held today, the state government and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) have directed the BMC to take precautionary steps such as halting sweeping of roads along the route from Saturday evening onwards, as well as enforcing strict compliance with construction regulations along the route to prevent air pollution.

After the NGO, Awaaz Foundation, on Friday reported unsafe levels of particulate matter (PM2.5) along the marathon route, deployed mobile air quality monitoring vans to assess the situation first-hand. On Saturday morning, an MPCB monitoring van stationed at Worli Naka recorded PM2.5 levels of 111.9 µg/m³ at 11 am. This is nearly double the Indian safety limit of 60 µg/m³, and over seven times the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard of 15 µg/m³. A subsequent reading an hour later showed PM2.5 levels at 106 µg/m³, reinforcing concerns raised by Awaaz Foundation, which deemed the air quality “alarming” and “unhealthy”.