The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wants to make it mandatory for new housing societies in the city to have biogas plants on their premises, provided the government allows it.
The idea had taken shape in 2015 itself, when Kandivali corporator Ajanta Yadav had moved a notice of motion in the general assembly, but was caught in a bureaucratic process. Often, the civic administration’s remark comes years later, and the motion and the remark are then tabled before the relevant authority.
Ms. Yadav’s notice had said, “The problem of Mumbai’s solid waste is grim and the dumping grounds have exhausted the capacity of waste they can accommodate. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has encouraged people to generate energy out of waste or to create biogas by means of biomethanisation. It should be made compulsory to install domestic biogas plants in their surroundings and such a condition must be incorporated in the Intimation of Disapproval (first building construction permission) henceforth.”
In a recent response to the motion tabled at the civic law committee meeting, the civic administration, headed by the municipal commissioner, said that there is already a government circular that says that housing societies are expected to segregate dry and wet waste, and that wet waste will be processed on the building premises.
Housing societies, based on a plot larger than 2000 square metre, can have a vermin compost pit on their recreation ground, and a condition has been laid in the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) to have a biodegradable waste treatment plant. However, once a building’s construction is complete, it will not necessarily be under the DCPR’s purview to ensure degradable waste is composted.
“We have written to the principal secretary, Urban Development Department, to advise on making it mandatory for housing societies larger than one hectare area to have a biogas plant on their premises. The proposal can be processed once directions are received from the State government,” a BMC officer said.
The civic body has also written to special planning authorities like the Slum Rehabilitation Authority in Mumbai to make rainwater harvesting compulsory in new buildings under their jurisdiction, failing which they will not be given water connections. The city generates about 7,000 to 7,500 metric tonnes of solid waste every day, as opposed to the 9,000 to 10,000 metric tonnes it used to, two to three years ago.
