Civic body wants half of Taloja plot kept for regional landfill

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) may take away almost half of the land marked in Taloja for a regional landfill for other civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

The BMC, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Urban Development Department are discussing the pros and cons of such a move. Sources within the MMRDA said sharing land with the BMC may have an adverse impact on the handling of solid waste in the rest of the MMR.

When the development authority had conceptualised and begun implementing the landfill project, the BMC had decided not be a part of it. Thus, in 2011, four municipal corporations — Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar and Bhiwandi-Nizampur — and two municipal councils — Ambernath and Kulgaon-Badlapur — were to pool refuse in the facility in Taloja.

“At the moment, the MMRDA has possession of the Taloja land. We are in dialogue with the Urban Development Department. The idea is to give around 50 hectares to the BMC for a dedicated landfill site as they are not ready to be part of larger regional landfill planned by us,” said a senior MMRDA official. If there are directions to share the piece of land of around 50 hectares with the BMC, then other civic bodies will stand to lose out on a long-term landfill site.

On July 31, 2010, the MMRDA had got the possession of 117 hectares or 289.113 acres from state government’s revenue and forest departments. More land is to be acquired surrounding the existing site. These land parcels are in possession of private parties. A total of 750 acres or 303.5 hectares was planned for the regional landfill site.

In August 2014, a contract with Hyderabad-based Ramky Infrastructure (the private agency that was finalised for regional landfill site) was scrapped as it was said to have been blacklisted by some civic bodies in India. Therefore, this led to restarting the process to set up the facility through public-private partnership mode.

As per the MMRDA’s earlier plans, the e-waste facility was to come up over four hectares for scientific disposal of waste generated in Mumbai and the MMR. Annually, the state generates around 20,000 tons of e-waste, out of which Mumbai alone contributes 11,000 tons. The regional solid waste management project that was to come up over 117 hectares was expected to clear around 2,000 metric tons of garbage daily. The cost of the project was Rs1,000 crore and Rs8 crore for solid waste management and e-waste facilities respectively.