Bhalswa landfill 12 metres shorter, claims North Delhi Municipal Corporation

On Thursday, east Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir had said the east civic body had reduced the height of the Ghazipur landfill by 40 feet, by treating legacy waste. In 2019, the landfill had touched a height of 65 metres.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Saturday said the height of the Bhalswa landfill, located near the GT Karnal Road, has reduced by 12 metres over the last eight months.

Bhalswa Landfill in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

According to officials of the north civic body, the height of the garbage pile was reduced with the help of trommel screening machines deployed at the landfill site, to treat the waste.

On Thursday, east Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir had said the east civic body had reduced the height of the Ghazipur landfill by 40 feet, by treating legacy waste. In 2019, the landfill had touched a height of 65 metres.

Bhalswa is the second biggest dump yard in the national capital, after the Ghazipur landfill.

However, on Friday, the AAP said the BJP MP was “lying”, claiming there was a significant increase in the width of the landfill. The AAP, in a statement, said it’s party’s MLA from Kondli Kuldeep Kumar on Friday inspected the Ghazipur landfill site to check the authenticity of the BJP’s claim about reducing the height of the landfill.

Pradeep Bansal, chief engineer, north corporation, said the civic body had in September 2019 decided to use trommel machine-cum-ballistic separators to segregate solid-waste and inert materials at the Bhalswa landfill site. The first mechanical screening machines started segregation of waste at the Bhalswa landfill site on October 6, 2019. The height of the waste dumped at the site was then 65 metres.

“Till Friday, we have segregated 5.6 lakh tonnes of waste and reduced the height of the landfill site by 12 metres. Currently, 15 trommel machines are functional at the landfill site and are lifting and separating 4,500 metric tonnes of legacy waste per day. Two more trommel machines will be pressed into service from Monday. Our capacity per day to segregate waste will further increase to 5,500 metric tonnes,” Bansal said. He said the corporation’s target is to flatten the landfill site in a few years.

The Bhalswa landfill site is an open dumping ground created in 1984, and currently spread over 70 acres. It reached a saturation point in 2006, but still receives about 2,100 metric tonnes of mixed waste every day.

Bansal said waste is taken from the top of the landfill and put into trommel machines. These machines segregate the waste in three parts — waste usable as RDF, C&D waste and inert soil.