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.”