The high court’s ruling to ban new constructions in the city for not complying with the solid waste management (SWM) rules has left the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) embarrassed. However, to save face it is now planning to challenge the order in the Supreme Court. “Looking at the gravity of the city’s garbage issue and other compulsions, we still need time to tackle the problem. Also, considering that real industry will be hit hard by the ban, we might seek a review of the court order,” said a senior civic official.
However, the BMC is still grappling to find a solution for the every growing garbage problem in the city.
The BMC has decided to start waste to energy plants at Mulund and Deonar dumping grounds. While tenders for setting up the waste to energy plant at Mulund have already been floated, the civic body has appointed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as a consultant to set up 2,000 metric tonnes (MT) capacity waste to energy plant at the Deonar dumping ground.
However, it will still take a while to start these projects. According to the civic officials, the technology to be used for setting up these plants have not yet been decided.
The civic officials refused to comment on the court ruling saying that they need to first study the decision in detail.
Civic officials said that the lessons from setting up the plant at Mulund would be useful for Deonar. However, at least six months are needed for the contractors to get the clearance and set up the plant at Mulund. The Deonar plant would be set up only after that.
Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee said, “The BMC plans to set up a waste to energy processing plant at Mulund over four hectares of the land. We will commence closure of Mulund dumping ground this year. We will also float the tenders for waste to energy plant at Deonar soon.”
The civic administration has admitted that it is unable to process large quantity of waste in the city. Of the 9,310 MT of waste, only 38 per cent of waste is being processed in the city. The BMC is facing difficulties in treating waste scientifically due to various reasons.
The BMC is in the process of acquiring 52 hectares of land at Taloja in Navi Mumbai from the state government in order to construct another dumping ground. In addition to this, the stage government has also handed over an area of 32.77 hectares near Airoli bridge for a dumpsite.
