Pune civic body to complete biomining of waste dumped at Uruli Devachi-Phursungi site by 2023 end

The PMC had acquired 43 acre in Uruli-Devachi in 1989 and the adjacent 120 acre in Phursungi village in 2002 for a landfill site, where the open dumping of waste generated in the city was carried out for years. However, the locals protested several times against the PMC over the open dumping of waste. They raised the issue in various courts, including the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Supreme Court.

The civic body began capping landfill sites but continued to dump waste due to insufficient capacity for processing waste. On the directions of the NGT, the PMC prepared an action plan in 2017-18 to process 100 per cent of waste generated in the city and stop open dumping of waste by 2019 while completing the biomining of the landfill site in the next five years.

“The PMC has successfully completed phase one of biomining in which 11.76 lakh tonne of waste was removed from the site and 21 acre of land was reclaimed by October last year. The second phase work has been started in which 20 lakh metric tonne of dumped waste will be removed through biomining and 32 acre of land will be reclaimed by December this year,” said Khemnar.

“The PMC has planted 16,000 trees alongside the dumping site. The plantation presently has been done on the boundary of the dumping site to create a buffer zone and created an ‘Amrut Van’. The green cover would be increased as the land is cleared of waste,” he added.

Deputy municipal commissioner and in charge of the civic solid waste management department, Asha Raut, said the PMC has decided to resolve major issues of pollution in the area. Raut added that no major fire incident was reported in the area in the recent past and the bad odour has significantly reduced.