Seven years after the Bombay High Court told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to shut the Deonar dumping ground, the civic body has finalised a contractor to set up a waste-to-energy plant there. The BMC has finalised a contractor for the first phase of converting 600 metric tonnes (MT) of waste into energy daily at a cost of around ₹600 crore. This waste that will be processed in the first phase is the fresh waste coming to the dumping ground on a daily basis. The accumulated waste will be tackled in the upcoming phases after its composition is studied. Eventually, all the waste that has been dumped at Deonar already will be processed and the fresh waste generated daily will also be processed there.
Mumbai generates 7,000-7,500 metric tonnes of solid waste every day. The dumping ground at Deonar is the largest and oldest one in the city, operational since 1927 with an area of around 132 hectares. Right now, the height of garbage mounds is around 30 metres. The BMC had initially planned a 3,000 MT waste-to-energy plant at Deonar but when it did not get any response, it decided to break it down to a 600MT and two 1,200MT plants in three phases. It is only when the plant is completely set up that the ground will be shut for further dumping of waste. The contractor will use incineration to create around 25MW of electricity per day.
