Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, directed the Maharashtra administration to constitute dedicated task forces to accelerate Waste-to-Compressed Biogas (CBG) projects across the state, signalling a dual push toward garbage-free cities and renewable energy expansion. The directive came during a high-level review meeting on garbage-free city initiatives and CBG project proposals.

Key Directives from the Chief Minister

Fadnavis instructed officials to set up waste processing plants wherever feasible, in line with Maharashtra's CBG policy. He identified four core parameters that must guide project planning: total volume of waste generated, availability of suitable land, technological feasibility, and proximity to existing gas pipelines. Implementation, he said, will hinge on structured collaboration among private sector players, oil marketing companies (OMCs), and urban local bodies (ULBs).

Notably, the Chief Minister stressed that converting organic waste into energy would meaningfully reduce municipal expenditures linked to waste collection and transport — a recurring fiscal pressure on urban local bodies across the state.

Priority Zones: MMR and Pune Industrial Hubs

Given the acute waste management challenges in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Fadnavis specified that projects must be prioritised in Mumbai (BMC), Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayander, and Kalyan-Dombivli. Beyond the MMR, IT and industrial corridors — specifically Hinjewadi and Chakan in Pune — were also flagged as high-priority zones, given their high waste generation and existing infrastructure density.

Keva Green Case Study: Nagpur Model

During the meeting, executives from Keva Green — including Executive Director Vrinda Thakur, Managing Director Kedar Waze, and Director Nandan Waze — presented a detailed case study of their operational waste-to-biogas initiative in Nagpur. The presentation outlined a roadmap for replicating and scaling similar units across Maharashtra, drawing on the Nagpur project's learnings in source segregation, land management, grid and pipeline connectivity, and technological deployment.

Cluster Model and Operational Strategy

Discussions centred on a cluster-based processing model that groups adjacent smaller municipalities to optimise processing capacity — a strategy seen as essential for towns that individually lack the waste volumes to justify standalone plants. Officials noted that conducting primary segregation within city limits while routing intensive processing to city outskirts will ease land pressure in dense urban zones. Positioning CBG units adjacent to gas pipelines was also recommended to reduce logistics and transport costs for the compressed gas.

This initiative comes amid India's broader national push for sustainable urban sanitation and bioenergy, with the government's SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) scheme already targeting thousands of CBG plants nationally. Maharashtra's structured task-force approach could serve as a replicable model for other large states grappling with urban waste crises.