Why does BMC want to spend crores on Deonar dump?……..Prafulla Marpakwar
Mumbai: A week ago, the BMCs standing committee rejected a Rs 5,500-crore proposal for a land-fill and waste-to-compost plant at the Deonar dumping site.However,the moot question is why civic bureaucrats are insisting on executing the multi-crore project, particularly when a Mulundbased firm was prepared to take the responsibility almost free of cost.
We had submitted a proposal to set up a waste-to-compost plant at a Mulund land-fill site. We are prepared to do an identical job at the Deonar site and that too almost free of cost. We are surprised that our proposal was rejected, said Brij Mohan Mundra, director of Vini Agro-Tech.
Following a proposal submitted by Mundra to the civic body for setting up a waste-to-compost plant at the Mulund land-fill site, the BMC had on July 5, 2001, accepted his proposal. Then BMCs chief engineer (solid waste management) A M Gor had issued a letter of intent to Mundra. The additional municipal commissioner (city) has accepted your proposal on behalf of the civic body…you are now requested to speed up your activities on site under intimation from this office….land admeasuring six hectares will be taken into possession for the development of infrastructure, Gor told Mundra.
On July 31, 2001, Mundra signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the BMC. The MoU was signed by the then additional municipal commissioner A K Jain, now principal secretary of the water supply department.
The civic body had agreed to provide a six-hectare reasonably-levelled land for establishing the project for the treatment and processing of 300 tonnes of solid waste and an additional four-hectare land for further expansion of the plant up to a capacity of 600 tonnes, near the existing six-hectare land. Further, in view of the facilities provided by the BMC, the firm would pay the corporation a royalty of 1% of the sale value of the organic soil enricher recovered from the solid waste supplied by the civic body. Our technology was in accordance with the guidelines of the apex court…it involved the utilisation of maximum waste…the technology is assisted by well-known scientist S R Maley, nominated by the high court to find a solution for the BMCs garbage, Mundra said.
He pointed out that the MCGM was not required to pay a tipping fee and was also not required to invest in the development of the project site allotted to Vini.
Nearly six years after the BMC issued a letter of intent to Mundra, on March 11, 2007, additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev informed Mundra that as his project was non-viable, the BMC was rejecting the proposal. We have come to the conclusion that it will not be feasible to implement the proposal, Rajeev said in a letter to Mundra.
The letter also said that the source of finance for the project is 25% of the cost to be paid by the promoter and 75% loan/subsidy for the Rs 6.85-crore cost of the Mulund project. It appears that a major part of the finance for the project is from the loan, which may result in nonviability of the project, it added.
Mundra said it was unfortunate that his plan, which did not envisage a financial burden on the BMC, was rejected. But the administration was prepared to spend Rs 5,500 crore for garbage disposal and Deonar landfill, he saidadded. Give me a chance, the BMC will not regret it.
OFFER REJECTED: Vini Agro-Tech had submitted a proposal to the BMC to set up a waste-to-compost plant almost free of cost, but it was rejected