The projects involve partial closure of the Deonar and Mulund grounds, with waste treatment plants coming up there, and a scientific landfill at Kanjurmarg. BMC says the lease is crucial for private operators to insure expensive machinery to be installed.

Chief engineer, solid waste management, B P Patil said the private players, who have a joint venture with global firms for technical and financial support, need it to insure machines. “It is part of our tender agreement to lease out the land for 25 years at a minimal rate so that contractors can insure their machinery worth crores. We will make sure they do not commercially exploit the land and it is returned after 25 years.”

Reminders from Municipal Commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya to the state Urban Development department to permit the lease have not received any response. Patil said, “Maybe they have more important projects before they think it is important to act on Mumbai’s basic waste disposal projects.”

Partial closure of the 80-year-old Deonar dumping ground, approved over two years back, will take place in two phases; 65 hectares will be closed, a processing plant and a sanitary landfill will come up on 55 hectares of the remaining. Now, 120 hectares of the total 132 is covered by untreated waste. Tatva Global Environment Ltd is taking up the project on a design-build-own-operate-transfer basis. A similar project is on at Mulund.  At Kanjurmarg landfill and Material Recovery Facility (MRF) site, work on a peripheral road, a compound wall, an administrative building, water supply, service reservoirs and plantation of trees has begun.