Mumbai’s waste management and sewage treatment programmes received a review from Maharashtra Environment and Climate Change Minister Pankaja Munde, who said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s ongoing measures were effective while stressing the need for stronger waste segregation by residents.
Munde chaired the review meeting at the BMC headquarters on October 12. Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde, Deputy Mayor Sanjay Ghadi, Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, and officials from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and the civic body attended the meeting.
The review covered solid waste management, construction and demolition debris, sewage treatment infrastructure and the phased rejuvenation of the Mithi River. The BMC also briefed the minister on its efforts to address garbage-vulnerable points and develop projects to generate energy from waste.
The civic body said 255 establishments had registered on the Mumbai Debris Control and Tracking System, or MDCTS. The platform is intended to monitor the management, transportation, processing and disposal of construction and demolition waste generated across the city, with the stated aim of improving oversight and preventing improper dumping.
The BMC is also working to eliminate 231 garbage-vulnerable points across Mumbai. These locations are part of the city’s persistent solid-waste management challenge, where collection systems, disposal practices and public behaviour directly affect neighbourhood cleanliness and the risk of waste entering drains and waterways.
On sewage infrastructure, the civic administration informed the meeting that seven sewage treatment plants are expected to become operational by around 2028. The plants are being developed as part of the BMC’s efforts to expand sewage treatment capacity and improve the management of wastewater before it reaches the city’s waterways.
Munde described the sewage treatment projects as effective measures towards improving sewage management and said the BMC was taking steps to address Mumbai’s waste-related challenges. She also urged citizens to segregate waste before handing it over for collection, underlining that the municipal system depends on household-level separation of waste as well as civic infrastructure.
The Mithi River works are being undertaken in phases, according to the report. Munde expressed satisfaction with the BMC’s ongoing rejuvenation measures and said the state government was establishing a mechanism to support the rejuvenation of rivers across Maharashtra. The meeting did not specify a revised completion date or provide details of the proposed state-level mechanism.
The projects reviewed at the meeting place Mumbai’s waste and water systems within a connected administrative framework: construction debris requires tracking from source to disposal, sewage treatment requires long-term infrastructure delivery, and river rejuvenation depends on reducing the pollutants and waste entering waterways. The next stated milestones are the continued registration and monitoring of establishments on the debris platform, the elimination of garbage-vulnerable points, the phased Mithi River work and the expected commissioning of seven sewage treatment plants by 2028.
