Foreign firms want to manage waste around Mumbai
International companies may soon be handling waste generated in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Fifteen firms from countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Austria and the USA have evinced interest in managing the regions first scientifically run landfill site at Taloja. These include Messrs Keppel Seghers Engineering, Singapore, INTERGEO, Austria, and KUB-BERJAYA Enviro, Malaysia.
In all, 37 companies have shown interest in developing a regional solid waste management project at Taloja along with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on a public-private partnership basis.
Some international companies have tied up with Indian entities to bid for the project. The 117-hectare regional solid waste management project to be developed at Taloja is expected to clear about 2,000metric tonnes of solid waste daily from the four municipal corporations of Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar and Bhiwandi-Nizampur, and two municipal councils of Ambernath and Kulgaon-Badlapur, additional metropolitan commissioner Ashwini Bhide said.
The project will cost Rs 1000 crore. The MMRDA will be providing the developer selected a viability gap funding for the project, which he will run for 25 years.
The dumping ground will not only be stench-free, but also generate electricity and have organic farms producing compost. The developer will be allowed to commercially exploit the compost manure created.
The MMRDA, in an attempt to take dumping sites away from human settlements, had proposed regional dumping grounds to treat garbage from all municipal corporations and councils in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Officials from the MMRDA said that seven municipal corporations and 13 municipal councils will be able to use this landfill site. The MMRDA has also asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation if it would want to use the site. The BMC has declined saying it can manage on its own for now but is open to using the facility in future.