Second garbage dump in Pimpri-Chinchwad is awaiting government approval for a decade

🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️

“Even if on a single day, the garbage is not reprocessed at Moshi depot, we have problem on hand, of accommodating the garbage collected,” says PCMC health chief Dr Anil Roy.

Across the city, daily garbage collection, transportation and disposal work gets underway at 5 in the morning and it ends around 2 pm. Nearly 400 vehicles which include compactors, ghanta gadis or tippers and trucks criss-cross the industrial city carrying the trash to the garbage dump at Moshi.

The civic body has appointed private contractors to carry out the task of collecting, transporting and disposing of the trash.

PCMC’s joint city engineer Sanjay Kulkarni said with the expansion of the city, the load of garbage is bound to go up. Keeping the future in mind, the civic authority had moved a proposal ten years ago for setting up of an additional garbage dump at Punawale which is exactly opposite side of Moshi and on the other side of Pune-Mumbai highway that divides the city into two parts. However, the government is yet to decide on the proposal.

The additional garbage dump, says Kulkarni, will not only take care of the future increase in load, but will also help in reducing the burden of collecting, transporting and disposing of the garbage from one part of the city to another.

“Another garbage dump can cater to areas like Pimple Saudagar, Wakad, Ravet, Thergaon, Kalewadi which are located on one side of the Pune-Mumbai highway. The existing one at Moshi can continue to cater to areas like Bhosari, Yamunanagar, Moshi, Chikhali, Indrayaninagar and Sant Tukaram Nagar,” he said.

Not only will the additional garbage dump cut down the cumbersome work, but will reduce the expenditure by a big
margin. “Though the processing work is being done on the basis of built, operate and transfer basis, the garbage collection and transportation takes lot of time, energy and cost. PCMC is currently paying Rs 80 crore annually to the two contractors for collection and disposal. The cost will come down by a big sum if another dump in nearby area is set up,” said Kulkarni. The movement of garbage also adds to air pollution and traffic congestion. A new dump is expected to reduce these as well.

But it is not just the government which is showing a lack of urgency. Aware of the fate of residents around the Moshi dump, the localities in the Punawale area are strongly resisting the move to set up a garbage dump in their backyard. Civic officials believe this might be the main reason for the reluctance of the state government to approve the proposal.

“The residents in and around Punawale have strongly opposed the move to set up the garbage depot on the forest land in the area. Their opposition not only relates to health hazard the dump will trigger, but also whether PCMC will be able to effectively manage the tranportation and movement of the garbage,” local Shiv Sena corporator Rahul Kalate said.

The locals have been pushing for a water filteration plant on that site. “That is because water is lifted from the Pavana river in Ravet area which is very close to Punawale. However, the filtered water reaches Punawale after taking a long route of 28 km. Due to this, there is constant low pressure water in areas like Punawale, Wakad,
Thergaon, Kalewadi and Pimple Nilakh. The water woes of these areas will reduce to a great extent if the PCMC goes for a filteration plant rather than a garbage dum,” Kalate said.

Atul Malode, a resident of Punawale, said the civic authorities had been unable to convincingly assure the locals that this would not turn into another Moshi dump.

“Several residential societies in Punawale area have strongly opposed the PCMC’s bid to set up the garbage dump in the area. For one, there is no clarity about it. Secondly, PCMC has not taken the residents into confidence. And thirdly, PCMC has not even told us how it is going to manage the garbage load which will coming to the depot. If the movement of vehicles are going to scatter garbage on all roads, it will only affect the health of the residents besides spreading stink all over.”

Sumit Jawalekar, another local resident said, “Though we are not against development, we are worried about management of garbage. Ideally, we would prefer a garbage treatment and processing plant rather than just garbage dump which is fraught with health risk.”

Jawalekar said the residents have been opposing the setting up of the garbage dump for long. “Last year, nearly 300 representatives of 25 residential societies had held a meeting and opposed the civic plan. We had submitted a memorandum to the officials who came to carry out the measurement of the proposed depot. We will continue to oppose the plan,” he said.

Meanwhile, In February, the PCMC said it has decided to set up four waste transfer stations in a bid to ensure better scientific management of the over 1000 tonne solid waste that is generated in the industrial city. The stations will be set up at Nigdi, Thergaon, Kasarwadi and Sangvi.

“The new waste transfer stations will ensure better handling of the garbage. As of now, garbage is manually transferred from small vehicles to the big ones and then transferred to the Moshi garbage depot. After the stations are set up, the garbage will be shifted from smaller vehicles in a scientific manner and carried to the garbage depot,” said Sanjay Kulkarni.

The latest plan of the PCMC is among a slew of them which the civic body has unfolded for effective management of the solid waste which, officials said, was increasingly posing a serious challenge to them.

“One more additional garbage dump will help in effective solid waste management as well reduce the headache of transportation,” a civic official said.