BMC Orders Week-Long Safety Audit of Mumbai's Landfills After Pune Tragedy
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has initiated a comprehensive safety audit of Mumbai's landfills and solid waste management facilities, following a building collapse at a waste-to-energy plant in Pune's Moshi area that killed nine people.
The week-long assessment will cover the city's two active dumping grounds at Kanjurmarg and Deonar, as well as the closed landfill at Mulund, where bio-mining work is underway. Authorities will evaluate the heights of legacy waste mounds, identify unstable excavation zones, and audit the structural stability of facilities in and around landfill cells.
On Tuesday, BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Vipin Sharma convened a meeting to review safety protocols across all solid waste management project sites. He directed officials to immediately reassess bio-mining excavation methods at Kanjurmarg, Deonar, and Mulund to ensure safe operations. As an immediate preventive measure, authorities have been asked to identify and barricade unstable excavation zones to prevent unauthorised access.
The move comes after a building at a waste-to-energy plant collapsed in Pune on [date], resulting in nine fatalities and raising concerns about safety standards at such facilities. The BMC stated that the audit aims to prevent similar incidents in Mumbai by ensuring compliance with safety norms.
During the audit, teams will also inspect refuse transfer stations and other solid waste management infrastructure across the city. The findings will be compiled into a report with recommendations for corrective actions, if necessary.
