A month and half after a court-appointed deadline to shut down the Gorai dumping ground, it continues to be used by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. In fact, though the BMC had assured the Bombay High Court that the dump would be closed in December 2007, the civic administration is now seeking additional time. "The BMC has given an application to the Bombay High Court stating that the closure of Gorai will take more time,'' said Additional Municipal Commissioner (City) R A Rajeev. The Gorai dump will, therefore, be functional for at least another "six months'. "We are waiting for environmental clearances from the Centre for the Kanjur Marg landfill site,' Rajeev added. The civic body was forced to shut the Gorai dump following court directives. It had reached its highest capacity (1,200 tonnes per day). Accordingly, closure operations at Gorai began on March 19, 2007, with plans to shift operations to the new sanitary landfill site at Kanjur Marg. Currently, the civic body disposes of construction debris at Gorai and cannot rule out the possibility of continuing the dumping of garbage in Gorai in case the development of the Kanjur Marg site is further delayed. Local Shiv Sena corporator Sadanand Surve said he along with local residents had met municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak last week. "The closure of the dump site has been delayed, but since they are only taking construction debris into it, we are not opposing. We will not allow any further disposal of garbage here,'' he said. On an average, Mumbai produces 6,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day, which goes to three dumping grounds