A civic investigation has revealed that tonnes of construction debris generated from nearly 2,000 redevelopment projects in Mumbai never reached their designated dumping grounds. Officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) told Mumbai Mirror that scrutiny of project documents exposed major discrepancies in disposal records.
The irregularities surfaced after the BMC found that builders had repeatedly listed the same seven sites as debris disposal locations for over 2,000 projects. “There was no way so much debris would fit in those seven spaces,” an official said. “We then started a probe in December and found that the debris was not going to the designated spot.” Following the findings, the civic body mandated that all debris must be handed over to authorised recycling plants in Dahisar and Kalyan. Construction permissions have been paused until errant developers formalise agreements with these facilities. Around 400 to 500 projects are reportedly on hold.
Under BMC policy, developers must declare disposal sites before securing approvals. However, officials found several projects naming identical locations in Panvel and Khopoli. “We saw that many projects listed the same location for disposal of debris. This raised a red flag as there was no place to dump such a large quantity of debris,” a civic official said. “When we investigated this, we found that no debris was dumped at these sites. We then stopped giving permission.”
Environmentalists suspect the debris may have been diverted to ecologically sensitive zones. Godfrey Pimenta alleged illegal dumping in areas such as Malvani, Versova creeks and mangroves. Rohit Joshi warned, “Illegal dumping is mostly done in the mangroves or the wetlands, which is a major hazard to the city… However, this dumping destroys these natural barriers, which causes flooding.”
Source: Mumbai Mirror
