The ambitious plan to decentralise the garbage disposal at four different places in the city received a boost with the forest department finally giving its approval to set up a garbage disposal plant in Punawale. This will enable the city to have four garbage disposal plants in different parts of the city as against the present system of the lone dumping ground at Urali Devachi village. A committee headed by district collector, with members of Pune Municipal Corporation, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), was set up to chalk out a plan for solid waste and drainage management in the city as a part of the Union Government initiative for mitigation of bird-hit incidents for 10 selected Indian Air Force airfields. The PMC was responsible for identifying three locations for the garbage disposal while PCMC was entrusted with identifying one under its jurisdiction. The PMC had identified and started working on the projects at Urli Devachi, Yeolewadi, and Mundhwa while the proposed project at Punawale in PCMC area was stuck due to objections by the forest department. "We have finally got the conditional approval from the forest department for executing the project at Punawale and we will soon start work on it,' Dr K Nagkumar, Chief Medical Officer of PCMC, told The Indian Express. He, however, admitted that there is opposition from the local residents for the project, but said that the issue will be sorted out. The project in 57 acres will tackle the garbage collected from PCMC and Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) areas. A vermin-composting project too will be set up for garbage disposal at Punawale. "The district collectorate has given its consent to all the four locations and it was up to the municipal corporations to start work on the garbage disposal projects,' resident deputy collector Chintamani Joshi said. Representing the MPCB in the committee, sub regional officer Shivaji Aiwale said there are no issues from the pollution control board over setting garbage disposal projects at the identified sites. PMC Deputy Chief Medical Officer R R Pardeshi said the work at Urali Devachi, where 120 acres have been acquired for the waste disposal project, is in full swing and a private company will use the wet garbage for composting and preparing refuse derived fuel for combustion purpose. The PMC has also acquired 20 acres at Yeolewadi for setting up refuse derived fuel and mechanical composting, but is yet to start work due to opposition from local residents, Dr Sanjeev Wavare, PMC Ward Medical Officer said. Meanwhile, the work order will soon be issued for setting up bio-methanisation plant at Mundhwa.