The Indian Express 30.07.2012
Deonar dumping ground nearly full, BMC to ready Kanjurmarg by Dec
With the rapidly reducing space in Deonar dumping ground expected to
force its closure in the next six months, the civic administration has
decided to make the Kanjurmarg dumping ground fully operational 15
months earlier than planned.
Faced with a dilemma of where to dispose of 6,500 tonnes of
garbage generated in Mumbai daily, the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC) has set a new deadline — December — to partially
close the Deonar dumping ground. This means the civic body will have to
make the Kanjurmag dumping ground fully operational by December-end to
accommodate the waste diverted from Deonar, the city’s largest landfill
site. At present, Kanjurmarg dumping ground can accommodate only around
500 tonnes of waste daily.
While the civic administration claims it will ready the
Kanjurmarg dumping ground for a capacity of 4,000 tonnes of waste daily,
the operators claim there is a delay in transferring the lease of the
land from the state, leading to a difficulty in financing the project.
“The state government has not yet transferred the lease of the land of
the dumping ground to us. The financial institutions are not giving us
funding due to lack of proper lease agreement leading to delay in the
completion of the project,” said Siju Antony, director, M/s Anthony Lara
Envriotech Ltd, which has been appointed operators for the Kanjurmarg
dumping ground.
“Although it has been difficult for us to operate the project, we
have moved our earlier deadline of March 2014 to December 2012 so that
we can accept an additional 3,500 tonnes of waste in the dumping ground
everyday,” said Anthony.
S G Chitale, chief engineer, Solid Waste Management, said, “There is no
major hurdle in the completion of the Kanjurmarg dumping ground. We
will ensure that the Deonar dumping ground which has already reached
full capacity is closed by December-end. The BMC will also ensure that
the Kanjurmarg facility is ready by the same time.”