Deonar waste will take 14 years to clear, cost ₹2,500 crore, says BMC

After the Maharashtra government's demand that the BMC carry out biomining of the solid waste in the Deonar dumping yard and hand over the freed plot to rehabilitate Dharavi residents, the BMC's head honchos held a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the issue.

- Yogesh Naik

MUMBAI:

They arrived at the conclusion that the biomining would cost them Rs 2,500 crore, besides which it would take at least 12 to 14 years to complete.

Officers from the BMC's solid waste management (SWM) department also told municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani that it was not possible to carry out the biomining, as there was no space in the city to dump the byproducts generated from it.

Biomining of solid waste is a process that involves the excavation, treatment and separation of the waste for reuse.

"The Mulund dumping yard is much smaller in size, and we have been biomining waste there for the last six years, but have still not completed the exercise," said a key officer of the SWM department. "It will take us at least 12 to 14 years to biomine the Deonar garbage. The cost is enormous. Besides, Dharavi residents have already objected to being shifted to land reclaimed from a dumping yard."