Mumbai: In a big step to tackle the growing garbage problem in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has finally received possession of land that will be used to set up a dumping ground at Taloja. Towards this, the civic body has paid an initial land cost of Rs 10 crore to the state government.

Of the 50 hectare land at Taloja, 38.87 hectare belonged to the state government while 12.20 hectare was private land. The state government asked the BMC to reimburse the cost of procuring land. Siraj Ansari, chief engineer, solid waste management (SWM) department, said, “We have paid the initial land cost to the state government and taken over its possession.

The BMC will soon start the process of acquiring private land. There are some families residing there. They will also have to be paid compensation for vacating the land.”

Civic officials said that the Taloja land would solve the city’s dumping problem to a great extent.

With existing dump sites – Mulund and Deonar – unable to handle anymore garbage, BMC is looking for alternate sites to tackle the problem of waste. The civic body is dumping 2,500 MT of garbage at Kanjurmarg dumping ground and processing it.

With the high court having asked the civic body to shut down the Mulund dumping ground and Deonar ground having exhausted its capacity, the BMC has decided to start waste-to-energy plants at Deonar dumping ground. However, local residents who are opposing the dumping ground, are adamant about the project.