MUMBAI, Sept. 16 -- Complaints of the stink emanating from the Kanjurmarg waste-processing facility from Kanjurmarg, Vikhroli, Bhandup and even further have been a regular phenomenon for the past decade. But having noticed an uptick in grievances, and parallelly juggling a PIL in the Bombay high court, the BMC will conduct an odour audit of the waste-processing site and come up with a mitigation plan. "Antony Lara Enviro Solutions, which handles the waste-processing site, already takes various steps to reduce the odour," said a BMC's solid waste management department official. "With rising complaints in the past few months, we are conducting this audit to see what more can be done." The audit will include inspections at 26 different sites to identify the source of the gases, their severity, and how they interact differently according to time, season, temperature and so on. Six of these spots are in the bioreactor landfills, where 5,000 MT of waste is sent daily to decompose. The audit will be conducted over three months at a cost of approximately Rs 13 lakh. The chosen contractor will also be tasked with recommending solutions to lessen/nullify the stink. Environmental activist Stalin D, who lives at Kanjurmarg, is no stranger to the stench. "I've been complaining about it since 2012, and it's got worse of late," he said. "When the garbage is turned and mixed to make space for more waste every few days, the stink becomes unbearable. Deodoriser is sprayed but not on a consistent basis-besides, it is potentially harmful to the health of residents around." In January, the Vikhrolikar Vikas Manch had submitted a complaint to the BMC with over 13,000 signatures of residents, along with letters from doctors and political representatives citing the public health issues such as asthma, respiratory illnesses and skin diseases. Nigam Sahoo, project manager at the Kanjurmarg site said they take several measures to reduce the odours. "In the bioreactor landfills, we have a mechanism to collect the landfill gas, a misting curtain that sprays deodorants to minimise the smell, and solution to neutralise the smell," he said, adding that the stench was unavoidable to some extent when the westward wind is strong....