Fire at Pirana dumpsite again, waste mgmt plan goes off track

A major fire broke out at Pirana dumpsite near the city which immediately worsened the air quality. Authorities blamed the fire on high temperature, but what they did not tell you was that the waste management plan for city has not moved in years.

Over the years, Pirana dumpsite is said to have accumulated over 85 lakh tonnes of garbage over 84 acres of land. Fires almost always break out around Diwali at this sit and the civic authorities, despite mulling over several options, have not acted upon them.

One of them was to cap the entire garbage hill at the cost of Rs 643 crore, but there hasn’t been any progress on this.

A tender was floated for bio-mining and four contractors approached the authorities, but no decision has been made on that either.

While bad air quality affects citizens, civic authorities are busy issuing standard responses. Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar said Pirana dump site was a complicated issue and they were working on solutions. “Fires at Pirana is due to methane gas that emanates from the garbage and it’s quite common,” he said.

Director of Solid Waste Management department Harshad Solanki added that waste paper is collected in large quantity during Diwali and …read more