Coastal Zone authority clears Deonar dumping yard for Dharavi resettlement

Free houses will be given in Dharavi only to ground-floor residents who have constructed huts before January 1, 2000, and the rest will be rehabilitated at Deonar, Bhandup, Madh, the Kurla Dairy plot and other places

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) has cleared the bioremediation of 18.5 million tonnes of solid waste in the Deonar dumping yard to free the plot for housing the ineligible residents of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. Free houses will be given in Dharavi only to ground-floor residents who have constructed huts before January 1, 2000, and the rest will be rehabilitated at Deonar, Bhandup, Madh, the Kurla Dairy plot and other places.

Mumbai, India - Sept. 13, 2024: A view of the Deonar Dumping Ground in Mumbai, India, on Friday, September 13, 2024. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The Deonar dumping yard land belongs to the state revenue department, and the state cabinet granted 110 acres of it in October 2024. The government has also handed over 255 acres of salt pan lands at Kanjurmarg and Mulund, 140 acres of land at Madh Island and 21.25 acres of Kurla Dairy land for the project.

Mumbai generates approximately 6,500 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste, of which 600 tonnes per day is disposed of at the Deonar dumping ground. Navayuga Engineering Company Limited is the contractor carrying out the project.

The dumping yard is next to Thane Creek, surrounded by a small creek or creeklet on its northern and eastern boundaries. The project site and the creek are separated by mangroves. On the far eastern side lies the Thane creek, which also houses the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary. The western and southern boundaries of the project site are surrounded by the dense Govandi and Mankhurd slums.

The minutes of the meeting say that “the project study area is quite heterogeneous with the presence of urban area, industrial area, research facilities, water bodies (Thane creek), airport, mangrove forest and a flamingo sanctuary”. “The actual excavation of the legacy waste accumulated over the years will be carried out from the top of the mound and gradually progressing towards the bottom of the mound,” says the document.

The legacy waste heaps are as high as 40 to 55 metres and some of them are compacted and capped. The company has got permission from MCZMA but will also have to take permission from the Bombay high court.