Mumbai: The next time you are caught leaving a mess behind in public places, be ready to fork out at least Rs 500 as BMC plans to intensify its cleanliness drive by increasing fines and introducing a monthly user fee to cover the costs of solid waste collection, transportation, processing and disposal.
According to the civic body’s updated draft sanitation and health bylaws 2025, it has proposed increasing the fines for littering and urinating in public places from Rs 200 to Rs 500, and for failing to clean up after pets from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000.
The draft bylaws, proposed to replace the ones from 2006, will be uploaded on BMC’s website on Tuesday. Citizens can review the draft and submit their suggestions/objections till May 31 via email to bmc.swmbyelaws2025@gmail.com or in writing to solid waste management’s head office.
BMC officials said the draft sanitation and health bylaws 2025, which have proposed increasing the fines for dirtying up public places, have been framed keeping modern urban challenges and administrative reforms in mind.
The user fees for solid waste management the civic has proposed covers residential properties, commercial establishments and educational institutions, and will range from Rs 100 a month for residential properties with less than 50sqm built-up space to Rs 7,500 for hotels with more than three stars and marriage halls, festival halls, exhibitions and fairs over 3,000sqm. They will be incorporated in the new bylaws. In its 2025-26 budget presented last month, BMC had proposed levying user fees on residential and commercial properties, through which it expects to generate an annual revenue of Rs 687 crore. TOI was the first to report on Dec 14, 2024, that the civic body was planning to introduce such a charge.
Mumbai generates 8,000 tonnes of solid waste daily, a majority of which ends up at the Kanjurmarg dumping ground and a smaller portion at the Deonar landfill.
—Richa Pinto