Demands on Mulund dumping ground land grow: BJP asks for golf course, UBT wants hospital, and now Dharavi project body seeks 15 acres for casting yard

Mumbai: At a time when the BJP has demanded a golf course and the Shiv Sena (UBT) a cancer or eye hospital on the Mulund dumping ground land, there is a third demand from the Dharavi redevelopment body, which has sought 15 acres for 10 years to build its casting yard.

In a letter to the BMC, the Navbharat Mega Developers Pvt Ltd (NMDPL), formerly the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Pvt Ltd, said it wants 15 acres for a casting yard as well as precast and ready-mix concrete (RMC) plants, essential for completing the Dharavi redevelopment.

The golf course demand was made by local BJP MLA Mihir Kotecha. The hospital demand came from Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Milind Narvekar.

Narvekar has now written to CM Devendra Fadnavis asking him to allot at least a part of the land for a cancer hospital.

"Around 42 acres of land is available in Mulund. In Jan this year, I made a request to set up a world-class cancer or eye hospital on the basis of a PPP (public-private partnership) model. DRP (Dharavi Redevelopment Project) has demanded various lands in Mumbai, and 124.3 acres of land in the Deonar dumping ground has already been made available for this project. At least five acres of land in Mulund must be reserved for a state-of-the-art and affordable hospital. There is a shortage of such healthcare services in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai. As a result, patients here have to depend on Tata, KEM, Nair, or Lokmanya Tilak hospitals for treatment. Since the pressure on these hospitals is increasing day by day, it is expected that a positive decision will be taken to set up a world-class cancer or eye hospital on the Mulund dumping ground land in collaboration with renowned hospitals," Narvekar said in his letter to Fadnavis.

After Kotecha had proposed a golf course on the dumping ground land in April, Fadnavis asked the BMC to carry out a feasibility study and check the possibility of such a project.

The dumping ground at Mulund, which is the city's second-largest refuse yard, was shut down in 2018 and is in the process of being scientifically closed. Spread over 24 hectares of land, the Mulund dump was in use since 1967. Around seven million cubic metres of waste, towering 30 metres in height, has accumulated on the site.

"Since DRP is a vital and critical project, it is important to get the allotment of 15 acres of land for a 10-year period on lease at Mulund dumping ground abutting the road for the successful completion of the project. This land is vacant and is critical for the success of project work at salt pan lands allocated at Jamasp, Arthur & Jenkins. NMDPL requests early leasing of land on a temporary basis for 10 years, so that construction works on precast plants can commence on a priority basis for the build-out of rehab components," the NMDPL letter to BMC states.