Pune: BJP Divided Over Reviving Punawale Garbage Depot After Moshi Tragedy

Pimpri Chinchwad, 17th July 2026: A fresh political divide has emerged within the ruling BJP in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) over the now scrapped garbage depot at Punawale, with corporators from Chinchwad opposing the demand made by their party colleagues from Bhosari to revive the project.

The disagreement surfaced during Wednesday’s general body meeting, held in the backdrop of the July 8 Moshi waste-to-energy (WTE) plant tragedy in which nine workers were killed and several others injured after an unauthorised three-storey administrative building of the plant collapsed.

As the civic body debated the city’s worsening solid waste management crisis, Bhosari BJP corporators pressed for the immediate development of the reserved forest department land at Punawale as an alternative garbage depot. They argued that Moshi, which has been receiving the city’s waste for the past 35 years, has reached saturation, resulting in massive garbage mounds.

The corporators also demanded that the civic administration take a firm stand and begin dumping waste at Punawale with police protection if required. They further sought the retention of the Punawale garbage depot reservation in the draft development plan, which is currently under the hearing process.

However, BJP corporators from the Chinchwad Assembly constituency, including Standing Committee chairman Abhishek Barne and corporators Rahul Kalate and Kunal Vahwalkar, opposed the proposal, pointing out that the reservation for the Punawale garbage depot had already been cancelled. They urged the civic administration to identify an alternative site instead of reviving the project at Punawale.

The contrasting positions exposed an open rift within the BJP over the future of the city’s waste disposal strategy.

Meanwhile, the civic administration has accelerated efforts to decentralise solid waste management by setting up waste processing centres in every regional office jurisdiction. Additional Municipal Commissioner Kuldeep Jangam chaired a meeting with regional officers and executive engineers, directing them to identify suitable land for modern decentralised waste processing facilities.

Officials said processing waste closer to where it is generated would reduce dependence on the Moshi garbage depot and strengthen the city’s overall waste management system. Mayor Ravi Landge said the administration had been instructed to expedite the establishment of waste processing facilities across all wards.