Aafrin Kidwai 
NASA Image: Smoke from the fire which broke out on 28 Jan 2016 at the Deonar dumping ground, Mumbai
The Rs 1,100 crore Deonar waste-to-energy plant proposal has been cleared by the BMC standing committee.
The contract was allotted to the lowest bidder-Chennai M S W Pvt Ltd, without any discussion in the standing committee meeting, reports The Times of India. The BMC will give 12 hectares of the over 120-hectare Deonar landfill to the contractor to set up the plant within 40 months and then operate it for 15 years.
The plant will process around 600 metric tonnes of garbage daily and generate power for sale in the open market.
In 2013, the BMC invited an expression of interest for scientific closure of the city’s largest dumping ground at Deonar, which has been in operation since 1927. Since then, the project has been mired in controversy and found no takers – until now.
Picture Credit: NASA, Mumbai oli 2016028, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons
