Deonar dump yard maintenance: MahaRERA chief to head monitoring committee

According to the recent Supreme Court order, the committee will also monitor construction debris dumping sites, without which no construction work is to be allowed in areas under BMC.

Retired bureaucrat and current MahaRERA chief Gau-tam Chatterjee will head the multi-member committee appointed by Bombay high court to monitor maintenance of Deonar dump yard till the garbage at the site is disposed of in a scientific manner.

Deonar dump yard has witnessed several fires over the years. (HT File)

According to the recent Supreme Court order, the committee will also monitor construction debris dumping sites, without which no construction work is to be allowed in areas under Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla on Thursday appointed Chatterjee as chairman of the multi-member committee, originally appointed by the HC in February 2016.

The committee also comprises of a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, a representative of the Indian Institute of Technology or the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, an expert in environment and the applicant Rajkumar Sharma.

The committee was entrusted to take all necessary measures for proper maintenance of the site, especially the safety measures.

The committee was empowered to issue appropriate directions to BMC for that purpose. The committee was constituted by the HC after a spate of fires at Deonar dumping ground which badly affected the air quality of the city. Recently, the Supreme Court entrusted another duty to the HC-appointed committee – to monitor construction debris dumping sites.

The SC has modified the high court order imposing ban on new constructions within the city and allowed new constructions on the condition that every project proponent will first make available the construction debris dumping site. The task of inspecting and certifying the availability of such dump sites has been entrusted to the committee.