Mira Bhayandar: More than two years after the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) mooted the idea of recycling debris and waste construction and demolition (C&D) material, the process of setting up a plant for the purpose continues to be in limbo.
To ensure that the C&D is not dumped in eco-sensitive zones nor remains unattended on roads or pavements of the twin-city, the civic administration had decided to set up a plant to develop a mechanism in July-2021 to collect, process, recycle and reuse on a daily basis. An elaborate plan was chalked to set up a plant having a capacity to process 150 tonnes per day (TPD) of construction waste by roping in a private agency on a Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis. It was also decided that the agency will set up the plant by charging a tipping fee of Rs 1280 per tonne which included Rs 1,050 towards collection and transport and Rs 230 per tonne for processing and recycling the C&D waste into reusable concrete, sand, bricks and even paper blocks.
The existing mini plant | FPJ
Blocks in the project
This apart from starting a debris-on-call service and designated collection points. However, the project has remained on paper for more than two years as the civic administration is yet to find suitable land for setting up the facility. “We met a hurdle due to the change in reservation of the earmarked land in the new development. While efforts were on to resolve the issue as per the due process of law at the earliest, we have a plant which is operational in Uttan,” said municipal commissioner- Dilip Dhole. The civic administration depends on a mini plant which has a capacity of just 50 TPD which is insufficient to tackle the existing dumping menace. Moreover, the MBMC has also implemented the cluster scheme which is all set to trigger a spurt in demolition of rickety buildings for redevelopment work bound to generate huge volumes of construction debris.
