Timeframe to clear waste, availability of land parcels: Contractors raise queries about clearing legacy waste from Deonar dumping ground

The BMC’s move of floating the tender came after the state government, in October last year, allocated a 124-acre portion of the Deonar landfill to construct housing tenements under the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP)—a venture steered by the Maharashtra government and the Adani group. In its tender document, civic officials mentioned that 110 hectares or 271 acres of the land will be cleared by them.

On Friday, civic officials held a pre-bid meeting where as many as 21 contractual firms participated. Civic officials said of the total number of participants, nine of them have submitted written queries to the authorities. These firms were pan-India companies; some of them having base in Hyderabad, Chennai, and other cities.

“The queries raised by officials were mainly related to logistical challenges. A large number of them shared their concern about how such a large pile of legacy waste could be cleared within a period of three-years. They also shared queries about how they are going to acquire the environmental clearances and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance from the state government and whether we (BMC) will be deputing any nodal officer for the same,” an official privy to the development told The Indian Express.

Civic officials said another key concern that the contractors have raised was the availability of additional land parcels, which will be required for depositing the treated solid waste. The BMC had also mentioned in its tender that 23,000 metric tonnes of solid waste needs to be processed daily, which will require mobilization of 1,200 trucks per day.

“Just because 21 firms have shown interest doesn’t mean that all of them will submit their bids. The final day for submitting bids is June 3, and we are expecting to issue work orders by the second week next month, provided there is adequate response from bidders,” the official said.

The process of bioremediation involves treating garbage items with the help of natural elements such as air, sunlight, and microorganisms. As part of the process, in the first step, the BMC will carry out a mechanized excavation process to bring down the piles of waste at the spot.

Following this, the entire mound of solid waste will be segregated. The BMC will also set up a temporary makeshift processing facility inside the dumpsite to carry out segregation operations. Post segregation, the biodegradable waste will be allowed to decompose naturally, while the non-biodegradable waste will be either recycled or sent to waste treatment centres for their final disposal.

In 2018, the BMC initiated cleaning a 60-acre dumping ground at Mulund in suburban Mumbai that was operational from 1968 to 2018.
According to data furnished by the authorities, in the past seven years, the civic body has been able to remove around 47 lakh metric tonnes or 67 per cent of the the total 70 lakh metric tonne of solid waste at the Mulund dumping ground. Data also shows that till date, the BMC has been able to reclaim 25 acres of land out of the total 60-acre land parcel.

Compared to this, the quantum of waste that needs to be cleaned at Deonar dump is almost three times that of Mulund, and the area that needs to be reclaimed is four times.

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