Mumbai: The closure of the dumping ground in Mulund will again miss its deadline of 2024. Due to the Covid pandemic, the project was delayed for two years.
Though the work has been hastened in the last few months, it will take six years to complete the project. The waste amounting to seven million tonnes in the dump yard is now expected to be processed by 2025, a civic official said.
Mulund dumping ground was filled till the brim in 2018
The BMC collects around 6,300 metric tonne of garbage from the city every day. While 5,500 metric tonne is sent to the processing plant in Kanjurmarg, another 700 metric tonne is dumped in Deonar dump yard.
The dumping ground in Mulund was closed after it filled to the brim in October 2018. Prior to that, the BMC had invited a tender to close the landfill in November 2015, but failed to get contractors who could use the latest technology to process the waste.
Finally, the BMC appointed a consortium of Prakash Constrowell Ltd, Infotech International Ltd and EB Enviro Biotech Pvt Ltd to process the waste using the latest technology at a cost of Rs731 crore. Accordingly, a tender was awarded in June 2018. The work was expected to be completed in six years, which means by the end of 2024.
Permissions pending, say civic officials
A civic official said, “The project was delayed as it needed to complete the criteria to get various permissions from the authorities. In addition, the Covid pandemic brought in a shortage of manpower during the lockdowns. Also, the work slows down during the monsoon.”
Deputy Chief Engineer (Solid Waste Management, Projects Manish Pimple said, “The work was behind schedule owing to various reasons. But now the issue has been resolved and one million tonne of waste has already been processed. We now expect the work to be completed by 2025.”
After the Deonar dumping ground, Mulund was the second largest in the city. It is spread over 24 hectares and has been in use since 1967. In 2018, the city produced 7,200 metric tonne of garbage daily. Out of this, 2,000 metric tonne of waste was dumped in Mulund.
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