Fresh fire breaks out Mulund dumping ground

“The fire was spread over a 1,000-square-metre area. It has been doused. Since it was a pocket fire, we are not stationing fire engines at the site,” said P Rahangdale, chief fire officer.

Another fire official said that the pocket fires would continue to break out in the dumping ground.

“The fires break out due to methane gas during this time every year. We can’t do anything to stop these fires, but will make best efforts to douse these. Due to wind, the smoke spread in the surrounding areas in the afternoon,” said a fire official, involved in the fire fighting operations.

Gandhi, along with other senior congress leaders, is supposed to visit the Deonar dumping ground on Tuesday morning. Gandhi’s visit is being seen as Congress’s attempt to build the momentum ahead of the Mumbai civic polls to be held early next year.

Following criticism over the garbage crisis, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it would remove garbage from the Mulund dumping ground and ‘claim the land’ that would be made available to people for walking and such other purposes. At present, there is at least 62 lakh metric tonnes of garbage dumped at the Mulund dumping ground.

Civic officials said the tendering process for the same was going on and some changes were being made to complete the work at the earliest.

“The changes will be completed in a week. By June first week, the tender will be awarded and the contractor will be given six months to start the work,” said Vijay Balamwar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner.

In January, the first major fire at the Deonar dumping ground broke out and lasted an entire week. Following that, a couple of pocket fires have been reported in Deonar dumping ground in the past two months.

It led to the Bombay High Court banning new constructions, including residential and commercial ones in the city, since March 1.