Work almost over but no parties keen on commissioning it soon

Chief engineer B P Patil said while the landfill site work was complete,the work on the waste treatment plant could take a few months more. The city generates about 6,500 tonnes of waste a day,of which 6,000 tonnes are dumped at Deonar and the rest at Mulund. The delay in completion of the Kanjurmarg facility has forced BMC officials to take permission from the Airports Authority of India to increase the permissible height of the garbage heap from 40 metres to 45 metres. “We have got an approval from the AAI for the same. At present,the height of the garbage mount in Deonar is 35 m,” Patil said.

The Kanjurmarg site,spread over 141.77 hectares,was first proposed in 2005. Sangle had led a ‘rasta roko’ campaign against the project on the Eastern Express Highway in March. “How can a dumping facility come up in the middle of the city? At least three lakh people are staying in the surroundings. It should be somewhere outside the city limits,” he said.