Deonar fire: Did Rs 317 crore go up in smoke

While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) battles hard to control the dump fire, it will also have to take a long and hard look at the astronomical expenditure that the closure of the Deonar dumping ground entails.

According to data, the civic body has spent a whopping '317 crore in the past seven years on the Deonar dumping ground contractor. However, the amount has gone up in smoke, quite literally, with the contractor having failed to fulfill conditions, eventually leading to termination of contract.

The Deonar dumping ground, in 2009, was handed over to M/s Tatva Global Environment Deonar Ltd. (TGEDL) on DBOOT (Design, Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) basis for its scientific closure. Since then, BMC has paid '252.34 crore for municipal solid waste (management and handling) works and '64.71 crore for EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) works to TGEDL.

According to civic officials, the concessionaire at Deonar was required to carry out partial closure of the dumping ground while simultaneously putting up two compost plants for processing of municipal solid waste (MSW) of total 2000 metric tonne capacity. The project was required to be executed on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis.

\"However, despite continuous follow up and correspondence, the contractor was not able to commence operations since inception. Therefore, the civic body decided to terminate the agreement with them,\" said a senior civic official.

Last year, BMC decided to terminate the contract for scientific closure of the dumping ground. With the notice period having ended on January 31 this year, the civic body finally took over maintenance of the dumping ground on its own.

While the agreement was terminated, the needle of suspicion is pointing at the contractor for the fire that has caused multiple health problems for residents in the neighbourhood for about a week.

Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh said that the fire is sabotage by the contractor.

\"The contractor managing the dumping ground had to hand it over to the BMC at the end of January. The fire looks to be an attempt to send a message to the civic body that it is incapable of handling the dumping ground.\" Meanwhile, Civic Chief Ajoy Mehta has stated that there is an air of suspicion around the Deonar dumping ground fire.”