BMC’S tough bidding rules may delay treatment plant

Waste from across the city is likely to continue piling up dangerously for the next four years at the Deonar dumping ground.

More than a year after a massive fire engulfed parts of the city’s largest dumping ground, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to set up a treatment plant at the site is still stuck in the initial stages.

Sources said the bidding firms are demanding at least four years to set up a waste-toenergy plant.

The reason: the BMC’S bidding conditions put the onus on the contractors to not only clear waste at the site where the plant is to come up, but to also get environmental clearances from the pollution control board and certificates from other departments.

Soon after the January 2016 fire, which forced schools and offices in the area to shut down and led to severe health problems for residents for months, the BMC decided to set up a waste-to-energy unit by 2020 and issued tenders for bids.

The unit will be built on a 12-hectare plot inside the 122hectare dumping yard and will process only fresh waste.

The civic body had set a threeyear deadline for the project.

“No one knows what kind of waste there is, the amount of methane trapped under it, and how that can be captured. Companies have demanded extra time for this,” said a senior civic official, requesting anonymity.

The bidding procedure for the project was to end today, but is likely to be extended, the civic official said.

According to a Tata Consultancy report, the new plant will only process about 3,000 metric tonnes of fresh waste dumped at

There is no plan in place yet for the remaining 12 million tonnes of waste lying in the Deonar landfill, which means citizens will not get relief from the dangers of an overloaded dump