The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started the process of reclaiming the dumping ground at Mulund a couple of years ago. However, this project has failed to pick up the pace with the civic body revealing that only 10 per cent of the garbage has been treated as of March 2020.
As per data provided by the BMC, Biomining India Pvt Ltd has only treated 1,14,000 metric tonnes of garbage/waste so far. However, the company was tasked with treating 11,20,000 metric tonnes of garbage each year for a period of five years.
Meanwhile, leaders from the opposition have said that the project has been abandoned by the BMC. Back in December 2018, the civic body hired Ms Biomining India Pvt Ltd on a contract basis to shut down the Mulund Dumping Ground at an estimated cost of ₹731 crores over a six-year period.
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With this backdrop, the BMC stopped the dumping of garbage at the location since December 2018. The contractor was tasked with the shifting of waste to another location as well as bio-mining. However, the company has stopped working at the site since April 2020 due to COVID-19 related restrictions.
“The BMC has failed to tackle the important issue of solid waste management since 2008. There is no clear vision for scientific closure of dumping grounds. Whether it is Mulund or Deonar, it is the same old story,” Samajwadi Party MLA and Corporator, Rais Shaikh said.
In response, Sunil Ghadge, Chief Engineer of the Solid Waste Management Department (Projects) said - “After March 22, 2020 there was a Covid-19 pandemic and the work has been stopped since. So it is not proposed to take any action against the contractor for now. We have instructed him to complete the work as soon as possible.”
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It’s worth noting that the garbage at the Mulund dumping ground is being sent over to the dumping yards at Deonar and Kanjurmarg. The Mulund dumping ground was seeing anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000 metric tonnes of waste being dumped each day.
BJP MLA from Mulund, Mihir Kotecha has said that he will take up the matter with the Environment and Tourism Minister, Aaditya Thackeray. “The entire bid to close the dumping ground has turned out to be a farce. There is no work going on at the site. It looks like the Mulund dumping ground has been abandoned,” Kotecha said.
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