Adequate locations to set up new garbage dumping sites are not available in Mumbai. The Brihan-Mumbai Municipal Corporation (bmc) has been recently ordered by the Union government to create new garbage dumps within the city limits, as all the bmc dumping grounds have exceeded their capacity.

But bmc is finding it difficult to find a new location in accordance with the Union government norms. According to the ministry of environment and forests, garbage dumps should not be within five kilometres (km) of any residential, school or hospital building and should be 20 km away from airports. More importantly, they should be set up in a no-development zone. "Where is the space in the city to expand?' questioned Ajit Kumar Jain, additional municipal commissioner of the city. "To solve the problem, we are planning to hire three companies that will set up power plants to produce electricity from garbage,' said Jain. Of the 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage produced by the city every day, around 3,000 metric tonnes of waste can be used for producing electricity, he said.