By the time this column goes to print, a lot of you may have trouble recognising your own neighbourhoods. You may step outside your homes and be dazzled by the cleanliness of your streets. You may take a deep breath and wonder if this is what living in New York or London must be like. To be fair though, that comparison should no longer be necessary given that the BMC Commissioner settled it earlier this year. Apparently, Bombay is better than both cities in terms of per-capita availability of green space, planned coastal road gardens, and nearly 70 hectares of new open spaces. If you don’t see any of this around you, consider getting your eyes checked.

Getting back to the good news with which I began, the reason your neighbourhoods may seem unrecognisable this week is the BMC’s special road-cleaning and dust-control campaign scheduled to run from October 28 to November 6. That is 10 whole days dedicated solely towards improving air quality and preventing pollution caused by road dust and construction and demolition waste. An official statement to this effect has been released, which is why I’m sure it’s true, and certain that it will be effective. After all, whenever the BMC launches a campaign (and it launches a lot of them), it meets with success even if you never see proof of it.