Aafrin Kidwai 
Accumulation of biomedical in a hospital basement (For representational purpose only)
The Pune Municipal Corporation has doubled the cost for the collection and safe disposal of Covid-19-linked biomedical waste to Rs100/kg as against Rs47/kg for the biomedical waste of non-Covid patients.
“After Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, and Aurangabad, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) fixed the Covid-19 biomedical waste disposal charges at Rs100/kg last week,” Sunil Dandawate, who runs the common biomedical waste treatment facility in Pune at Kailas Crematorium informed The Times of India.
At present, Pune generates up to 5,000kg of Covid-19 biomedical waste every day, he said. The PMC is reportedly in the process of developing a mechanism for recovering the charges of treating Covid-19 waste from private hospitals.
The rise in cost is owing to the nature of the highly contagious Covid-19 infection, which has necessitated 100% incineration, along with the additional expenses related to the collection and transportation of the waste.
Picture Credit: zMFERMION, Biomedical waste, CC BY-SA 3.0
