LUCKNOW, Feb. 6 -- A pile of complaints about Mumbai's foul-smelling landfills has brought the maximum city's civic officials to Lucknow. This follows a Bombay high court directive to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in India, to study how Lucknow transformed its notorious Shivri dumpsite into a waste management model that cities across India now want to replicate. The BMC delegation arrived on Thursday at the Shivri site on Mohan Road, where an environmental problem has been turned into a solution. The scale of achievement is considerable as the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has so far disposed of around 17.50 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste, reclaimed 38 acres of land, with only a small quantity of waste now left to be processed. "People residing near the landfill have been complaining about foul odour and environmental issues for a long time. The matter reached the Bombay high court, which then directed us to study successful models in other cities, including Lucknow," said Kiran Dighavkar, BMC deputy commissioner leading the delegation, while speaking to HT. The court took note of how Lucknow tackled decades of accumulated waste and wanted Mumbai to explore whether similar approaches could work there. Lucknow additional municipal commissioner Arvind Kumar Rao said the HC directed Mumbai to examine alternative technologies being implemented by other cities. "Lucknow has demonstrated that legacy waste can be handled scientifically within a defined timeline. Our experience is now being seen as a benchmark," Rao said. The LMC engaged a private agency that began operations at Shivri on March 12, 2024. The agency has been processing waste that sat untouched for years. Materials are separated into refuse-derived fuel (RDF), biosoil, coarse fractions and construction debris, each handled through authorised disposal channels. Around 3.05 lakh metric tonnes of RDF have been disposed of. To ensure transparency and technical compliance, LMC has put in place a third-party monitoring mechanism. According to officials, Lucknow produces 2,000 to 2,200 metric tonnes of fresh garbage daily, and a 2,100-metric-tonne-capacity processing plant at Shivri handles both legacy and current waste simultaneously. Notably, Mumbai faces a larger challenge. The city produces 7,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily, plus another 7,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste. Most is transported to landfill sites. Bioreactor technology processes nearly all daily waste reaching these sites, but odour control remains problematic. Dighavkar acknowledged the differences in scale and complexity. "Everything we see in Lucknow cannot be replicated in Mumbai, but several practices can certainly be adapted based on local conditions," he said. The BMC delegation received detailed presentations on waste collection, segregation, processing and disposal mechanisms before visiting the Shivri plant to observe machinery and operations. Their findings will be compiled into a report for the Bombay HC, which will guide Mumbai's future approach to addressing its landfill challenges....