Mumbai: After facing criticism for prolonged delays, the BMC has ramped up efforts to commission the long-awaited waste-to-energy (WTE) plant by October 2025. In a revision of its original plan, the BMC has decided to increase the plant's power generation capacity from 4 MW to 7 MW. This upgrade will allow the plant to generate more sustainable energy while processing 600 metric tonnes (MT) of waste per day.

Mumbai currently generates around 6,300 MT of waste daily, with approximately 10% of it being dumped at the Deonar landfill, while the remaining waste is sent to the Kanjurmarg facility. The Deonar site, spanning 311 acres, has been used for waste disposal since 1927. It is owned by the revenue department but is under the BMC’s control.

Recently, the civic authorities reached out to the Revenue Department’s chief secretary, requesting that a portion of land at Deonar be reserved for the BMC’s use, while the remaining land would be allocated for the Dharavi Redevelopment project.

The WTE plant at the Deonar dumping ground is crucial for addressing the approximately two crore metric tonnes of waste that have accumulated in the landfill. In response to growing concerns, the BMC has made changes to the initial plan, increasing the plant's capacity to generate 7 MW of electricity.

"The construction and erection of the project are underway, and we are committed to commissioning the plant by October 2025," assured a senior civic official.

The BMC's plan for WTE had a setback when they failed to get bidders to process 3,000 MT per day of waste at Deonar. It took nearly six years to begin the construction of the WTE plant in June 2022. A contract has been awarded to M/s Chennai MSW pvt ltd at a cost of Rs 648 crore with a design and build period of 40 months and an operation and maintenance period of 15 years.

The civic authorities were slammed by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for BMC's poor monitoring and abnormal delays in obtaining mandatory clearances for setting up plants, in its special audit report last year.