Centre approves Rs 443 crore for Mumbai, Thane, Mira-Bhayandar civic bodies for waste management

Representation pic

Mumbai, Thane and Mira-Bhayandar municipal corporations will be able to resolve their solid waste management issues and reclaim land occupied by garbage and dump sites. The Central government on Wednesday approved a Rs 433.74 crore action plan submitted by 28 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to effectively address the issue of urban waste. The Centre had last year announced a plan to make Indian cities garbage-free under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 and one of the major objectives under the mission is ‘Lakshya Zero Dumpsite'. This was to remediate 16 crore tonnes of legacy waste dumpsites occupying nearly 15,000 acres of city land parcels.

Twenty-eight urban local bodies from Maharashtra had submitted action plans for remediation of dumpsites to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Greater Mumbai tops the list, aiming to address the issue of 2.6 crore metric tonnes of waste to transform its urban landscape by reclaiming approximately 355 acres of land followed by Thane Municipal Corporation handling 8.3 lakh metric tonnes of waste lying in the city's dumpsite. Mira-Bhayandar plans to dispose of approximately 9 lakh metric tonnes of the waste, reclaiming acres of prime land. "The project will ensure the ecological balance in about 1,532 acres of land," an official said.