Mumbai News: BMC's Oil & Pellet Plants Plans in Jeopardy As Mulund's Dumping Ground Faces Slow Progress

Mumbai: Only 35% out of 70 lakh tonnes of waste in Mulund dumping ground has been processed in the last two years. The deadline for the closure of the plant has already been extended to July 2025. The slow speed will affect the BMC's plans to set up two plants of oil or pellets at the site, fears civic officials.

The BMC awarded a contract to process the waste at Mulund dumping ground in 2018 for six years at the cost of Rs731 crore. However, due to various permissions required for the project, the actual work started in 2021. While processing the waste, more than two lakh tonnes of scrap combustible fractions (SCF) (plastic, fiber, wood etc) were found. It has been decided that the SCF will be converted into oil or pellets at two proposed plants at the site.

Closure Deadline Of Dumping Ground Extended to 2025

According to the civic official, one of the plants to be set up would be a refuse derived fuel (RDF) unit where 200 tonnes of SCF will be processed per day to convert them into pellets. The pellets can be used as a substitute for fossil fuels in industries like cement plants. But the delay in work has forced the BMC to postpone the earlier deadline for closure of the dumping ground from October 2024 to June 2025.

“At present, 24 lakh tonnes of waste has been processed. Recently, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had a meeting with Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on issues pertaining to solid waste management. After that, we have been instructed to ensure that the Mulund project gets completed within the given deadline,” said a senior civic official