India, Feb. 9 -- As part of its plan to reduce air pollution, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has issued a notice to bakeries in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to discard their firewood and coal ovens and shift to LPG, PNG, electricity and other sources of green energy in the next six months. The MPCB notice has come after the Bombay high court took up the issue of MMR's alarming air pollution in a suo motu petition 18 months ago.

In January, the state government assured the court that it would make bakeries switch to non-polluting sources of energy by July. Municipal corporations have started serving notices to the establishments, while MPCB published general notices in newspapers on Saturday. MMR has over 15,000 ba...