PUNE: Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal on Monday promised that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) would keep its word and completely stop open dumping of garbage at Phursungi and Urali Devachi villages by May 31.

The PMC general body also approved a resolution to set up 144 biogas plants in the city for decentralised processing of garbage. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Rajpal said, “We will keep our word. The state government has identified two locations in the fringe areas to start new processing plants.” However, he refused to reveal the names of the areas.

The mayor also said that the fire at the Phursungi garbage depot that broke out on Saturday would be doused within 24 hours.

The general body on Monday approved a resolution to set up a biogas plant in every ward. The municipal commissioner has been authorised to identify the plots for the biogas plants.

At present, there are 11 processing plants with a capacity of five to 10 MT running successfully in the city. There are 144 wards and the PMC has identified 100 plots so far to set up the garbage processing units. In this way the waste collected will not have to be transported elsewhere and will be treated at source. The PMC has allotted Rs 10 lakh per ward for this activity.

The PMC has been dumping garbage at Urali Devachi since 1991. To shift the burden from the site, the corporation had identified four depot locations. However, the plans failed to materialise due to the opposition from the local residents.

The city has 37 biomethanisation plants owned mainly by hotels, where 20-25 metric tonne garbage is taken care of. Moreover, 20 units of modernised composting plants process about 12 metric tonnes biodegradable waste to produce manure. The city has 1,500 vermicomposting units, of which 550 units are non-functional and around 300 units run through voluntary participation.

Permission for 2 new plants deferred
The PMC standing committee, on Wednesday, approved two garbage processing plants. The proposal was then tabled before the GB for approval but, fearing that the ruling NCP would take the credit for solving the garbage problem, the Congress, BJP and Shiv Sena forced the NCP to defer the issue, despite the May 31 deadline.

The standing committee has approved the proposal to allocate 45 acres of land to Hanjer Biotech Energy Limited. Hanjer runs a processing unit with the capacity to process about 500 tonnes waste. With this additional facility, the company will take care of 1,000 tonne waste. Besides, Rochem Separation Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd will generate power while processing 700 tonne in its unit at Hadapsar. The PMC has allocated 2.5 acres of land to the company.

With these two plants fully functional, about 1,700 tonne garbage will be processed, as per the PMC’s estimates.