NEWS

The 16-member BMC standing committee and the civic administration are again at loggerheads after the committee called for a new round of bids for the project to close the Deonar dump. The committee has effectively rejected the Rs 5,500-crore bid approved by the administration, delaying the much-needed project by another year. Mumbai generates 10,000 tons of waste a day, 70% of which is taken to the saturated Deonar ground. The project would scientifically close half the ground and make the other half a sanitary landfill. The same Public Private Partnership (PPP) model was to be repeated at Mulund and Kanjurmarg, helping ease the city's garbage woes tremendously. The standing committee that rejected the proposal was, ironically, the same committee that earlier entrusted IL&FS with the responsibility of coming up with a solution for managing the city's garbage. IL&FS came up with the PPP model the standing committee approved. But standing committee member Yogesh Sagar said, "The committee doesn't hold back proposals for vested interest. It works for the public good. The firm proposed for contract has not done proper waste management at the ward level, so how can it handle a bigger project?''