Moved on EC orders, meet Iqbal Chahal: Mumbai civic body chief who left his stamp during Covid, came to be seen as a ‘rubber stamp’

Two days after shunting Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday approved the name of 1990-batch IAS officer Bhushan Gagrani as his replacement.

Gagrani, who was attached to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and is known to have a rapport with CMs across party lines, is seen as someone “who gets things done”. His name was announced a day after the Maharashtra government sent three names to the EC as a possible replacement for Chahal.

Chahal was appointed as BMC commissioner in May 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak and the city was recording the highest number of cases in the country. He had previously served as the principal secretary in the Urban Development Department.

Post the expiry of the tenure of the corporators in 2022, Chahal became the sole administrator running the country’s richest civic body. In March 2024, he became the longest serving administrator in the BMC’s 135-year-old history.

One of Chahal’s first moves after assuming charge during Covid was decentralising the helplines and setting up centres in each of the city’s 24 municipal wards. The decision led to more efficient isolation of patients and was replicated by many civic bodies across the country, including in the national capital.

Chahal, a 1989-batch IAS officer, also oversaw sanctioning of infrastructure projects worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore including phase two of the Mumbai Coastal Road Project and the civic body’s mega road concretisation project.

It was during his tenure that the first phase of the coastal road project was completed and thrown open for vehicular traffic.

“It was during my tenure that the BMC issued work orders to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The