Let us dump waste at Deonar ground till 2023, BMC tells HC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday filed an affidavit at the Bombay high court (HC), seeking an extension to continue dumping the city’s waste at Deonar landfill till June 2023. Ashok Khaire, joint municipal commissioner (solid waste management), BMC, confirmed the development. The court has scheduled the hearing on the issue for Thursday.

The civic body said the extension has been sought because it will take more than 40 months to make the waste-to-energy plant at the site completely operational and also to appoint contractors to maintain the plant.

Last year, the court had permitted BMC to continue dump the waste at Deonar till December 31, 2019.

In its affidavit, the civic body cited that it has taken several steps to ensure better that municipal solid waste is treated at source. It also said that the land given by the state government near Navi Mumbai cannot be used as an alternative dumping ground at the moment.

A BMC official said, “We are hopeful that the court will give us an extension, considering that we do not have any other option to dump the city’s waste. We have also mentioned how we brought down the quantity of waste dumped at the site in 2019 from the quantity in 2015 by more than 20%.”

According to the civic body plan, the proposed plant will be functional for 25 years and will process 3,000 metric tonnes of waste at Deonar every day and generate 25-30 megawatt of energy.

BMC has however not been able to get response from private parties for the project, who claim the project is not viable.

In 2013, the HC had directed BMC to stop the dumping of waste at Deonar.

After several incidents of fire in 2015 and 2016, the court had put a ban on new constructions in the city, till the civic body increased its waste treatment capacity to at least 11,000 tonnes per day by June 30, 2017. However, the BMC had sought extensions on both the occasions.

Of the 10,500 metric tonnes of waste that the city generates every day, 25% is dumped at Deonar, while around 70% is handled by Kanjurmarg dumping ground. The Mulund dumping ground was closed by the corporation last year. However, the civic body has not been able to process the waste out of area.