US, Germany and South Korea show interest in helping Mumbai reduce waste disposal footprint

Companies from Germany, South Korea and USA have shown interest in disposing of the city’s garbage. This comes after the BMC looking for technologies that would reduce footprint area in waste disposal and adapt to tropical conditions, invited global players to set up a municipal solid waste processing & disposal facility. If all goes well, the project could be kicked off late next year.

Until now, the only solution available with the BMC was scientific landfill dumping sites which were expected to generate electricity from bio-methane gas. However, this module was of no help.

An alternative adopted was the production of compost manure from wet waste. But this resulted in excess manure, which it found difficult to manage.

“We are looking at technologies like incineration and biomethanation, which will minimise the requirement of space and dispose more waste,” said Prakash Patil, deputy municipal commissioner, solid waste management dept, BMC.

The projects will be implemented on municipal land. Fifty per cent of the capital cost will be from municipal funding. The selected operators will have to design, build, operate and maintain the projects, initially for five years, during which they will impart training to Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) staff before handing over operations & maintenance to it.