State government committed 50% of 126 hectares in Taloja to 6 MMR corporations because didn't approach them in time
Snooze and you lose seems to best describe what's just gone down with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Thanks to its tardiness, the city that generates the most waste in the state may have lost its chance to get a spacious dumping ground for the garbage it will generate over the next few years.
The BMC wanted to acquire 126 hectares of land in Taloja for a dumping ground. But it didn't approach the state government in time, which in turn has allotted half of this chunk of land to other municipal corporations that are part of the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR).
As such, the biggest municipal corporation in MMR, which produces four times more garbage than any other civic body in the region, has been left to be content with eating humble pie.
Sources reveal the BMC may get 63 hectares or less for garbage disposal in the next 50 years, since the state has already committed 50 percent of the 126 hectares of land to six municipal corporations in MMR, who were in touch with the state and MMRDA for the past three years. In contrast, BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte wrote to the state urban development department and MMRDA to acquire the land only in January 2015. And though he mentioned in his recent budget speech that BMC had set aside the funds to acquire 126 hectares of land in Taloja, it appears he was not in line with the facts on the ground .
The upshot of it all being that while the six other civic bodies have been promised the land area they demanded for the regional landfill site - where the municipal solid waste will be scientifically managed - the BMC has to toss its junk elsewhere.
"By this time half of the (Taloja) plot has been awarded to other civic bodies that have completed all administrative procedures of passing the resolution in their respective general bodies and arranging operational funds etc," said an official from Mantralaya, adding that in a meeting held last week between the state, MMRDA and BMC officials, the civic boss had been apprised that he wasn't going to get more than 63 hectares of the land.
The situation signals a grim outlook for Mumbai's waste management because the Deonar dumping ground in the city is filled up to 80 percent of its capacity, and may serve for another 5-7 years at most.
"Usually, MMRDA plans 50 years in advance for such projects. The plan for the regional landfill site was carefully drawn keeping the BMC in mind. But the corporation did not show interest then. Now 63 hectares, which is less than half of the Deonar dumping ground, is likely to get exhausted in a short while," said an MMRDA official.
The state government allotted 126 hectares of land to Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) in 2007-08 to set up a regional landfill site for its eight municipal corporations.
MMRDA had written to all urban local bodies with a stake to come forward if they were interested in setting up the garbage disposal facility in Taloja. While six municipal corporations expressed their interest in the dumping facility outside their city limits, BMC wrote off the offer, claiming it had the facility in place and did not require any land.
However, Dr Jairaj Phatak, then the municipal commissioner, had carefully kept the options open by mentioning in the letter that "if requirement arises in future" the BMC would tell MMRDA. But BMC failed to get in touch woth MMRDA or the state.
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