Pune: PMC Clears BPCL’s Free 300-Tonne Bio-CNG Plant After Month-Long Delay

Pune, 17th September 2026: The Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) standing committee has finally approved a proposal to facilitate a 300-tonne-per-day bio-CNG plant by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) at Fursungi-Uruli Devachi, after keeping the proposal pending for nearly a month.

BPCL has offered to set up the plant on its own, without any financial contribution from the civic body. The project will process 300 metric tonnes of wet waste daily on a 12-acre plot at Fursungi-Uruli Devachi.

The civic administration had submitted the proposal on August 14. Instead of approving it immediately, the standing committee had decided to take a decision at a special general body meeting. However, no such meeting was held for nearly a month. The committee on Wednesday brought a revised proposal and approved the project.

The development has triggered questions in civic circles over the delay in approving a project that would not require any direct financial expenditure by the PMC. Critics have questioned why the proposal was kept pending and why the committee suddenly moved to approve it.

Under the arrangement, the PMC will lease the land to BPCL for 27 years — two years for construction and 25 years for operation — at a nominal rent of Re 1 per acre per year. The civic body’s responsibilities will include providing land, water and road access and ensuring the supply of waste to the plant.

The project is expected to help the PMC save substantial expenditure on transportation and processing of waste.

The decision has also brought attention to a proposed Rs 765-crore tender for transporting waste outside the city.

Under the proposed arrangement, waste was to be transported around 75km outside Pune at a rate of Rs 1,705 per tonne. The contract was proposed for two years.

Questions are now being raised over the need for the costly transportation arrangement when BPCL has offered to process wet waste within the PMC limits without charging the civic body for setting up and operating the project.

The proposal has been described in civic circles as potentially making the proposed waste transportation tender unnecessary, particularly in view of the availability of waste within the city for the BPCL project.

The original proposal had remained pending while the standing committee was expected to convene a special meeting to take a decision. The committee’s sudden approval of the BPCL project on Wednesday has now intensified scrutiny over the earlier waste transportation tender.

The PMC will have to provide the necessary land and basic infrastructure while BPCL will undertake the construction and operation of the bio-CNG facility.