Despite letters seeking the MbPT’s permission, the BMC has still not received the necessary permissions.

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had been dumping garbage at Mahim Reti Bunder since September last year, without authorisation, in the hope that the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) — the owner of the land — would give the BMC requisite permission to construct a waste-compost project on the dumping site. However, despite letters seeking the MbPT’s permission, the BMC has still not received the necessary permissions for the waste-compost plant, and has now decided to drop the project.

The BMC’s G/North ward officials had planned to set up a waste-compost plant and a waste-processing unit at Mahim Reti Bunder and in the heart of the Dharavi slums respectively, to deal with the problem of solid waste management in Mumbai. The plan was to be able to deal with solid waste generated in four adjacent wards of the area, including F/North, F/South, G/North, and G/South, so that none of the household waste generated in this area would be taken to the Deonar dumping ground, after completion of the projects. Ramakant Biradar, assistant municipal commissioner, G/North ward, said, “We wrote to the MbPT for permission to use that area, but they have not been responding for a long time. So we scrapped the plan. Now, the other plant at Dharavi is the only project in the pipeline. If we ever get a response from the port trust, we can start the project at Mahim Reti Bunder again.”

Meanwhile, the garbage that the BMC was dumping at the spot in Mahim, at a rate of about 2 tons per day — assuming that the waste-compost plant would be set up there soon — had to be cleared away following complaints from local residents. Mr Biradar said, “We cleared the garbage right away, as we had been receiving many complaints, to the effect that the area had begun to stink following the dumping. We were accused of undertaking the dumping process illegally, but that was not the case.” When The Asian Age attempted to reach Vinay Dias, executive engineer, MbPT, he remained unavailable for comment.