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Transporting waste to Samgauli not feasible: Mohali MC to GMADA
The Mohali municipal corporation is unable to shift its bioremediation processing plant due to financial constraints, despite a recent court order to clear the dumping site. The corporation has requested another site for waste disposal due to heavy transportation costs. The Samgauli site, which was allocated for waste management 10 years ago, lacks the necessary infrastructure and would take at least three years to develop. The corporation generates 100 metric tonnes of waste daily and is currently unable to process it.
The Mohali municipal corporation has expressed its inefficiency to shift the bioremediation processing plant to Samgauli, Dera Bassi, due to financial constraints.
The development comes in the backdrop of Punjab and Haryana high court recently directing the civic body to clear the Phase-8B dumping site and adopt adequate remedial measures for proper disposal of waste in the city.
Notably, Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had allotted the Samgauli site to MC for solid waste management around 10 years ago, but they have yet to utilise the 50-acre space.
In a recent letter to GMADA, the MC wrote that shifting to Samgauli village site is not feasible for the authorities due to poor financial condition and thus has also demanded another site for the dump processing.
“Your department allotted us a site in Samgauli village for the solid waste management which is around 35 km away from MC. Due to heavy transportation costs, it will be very difficult for us to collect the garbage and transport it to Samgauli. With the current financial condition of the MC, it is not feasible to bear such a hefty transport cost. It is thus requested to allot another feasible site to MC for the solid waste management,” the letter read.
The MC also mentioned that due to increasing population in the city, the excess of garbage at the present Phase-8 site has been dumped and thus requires immediate shifting.
According to sources, even if MC agrees to use the Samgauli site, it will take another three years to develop it.
“There is no connecting road, no sewerage or water facility, no treatment plant, no electricity, no approach road at the Samgauli site yet which means that it would take at least three years to prepare the site for solid waste management or processing. Till then, we cannot continue with the present Phase 8B site as residents complain of unhealthy gases or diseases due to heaps of garbage there. We thus have requested GMADA to allot us another site nearby,” a senior officer said on condition of anonymity.
The civic body has six tippers trailers to dump the garbage collected from across the city at Phase 8B site.
“Each tipper at least makes four rounds for dumping the garbage currently but in case, the processing plant will be shifted to Samgauli, it will take the driver of the tipper-trailer around 90 minutes to reach there. That will be a very expensive affair for us,” an MC official said.
GMADA chief administrator Rajiv Kumar Gupta refused to comment on the issue.
Notably, while Mohali improved its ranking by climbing 31 spots to secure the 82nd position among 446 cities with a population over 1 lakh in the latest Swachh Survekshan rankings; the city is yet to achieve complete processing of garbage collected. Mohali scored 77% in waste generation vs processing.
It was the fifth time last month when civic body failed to allot the tender for bioremediation processing of the 2.79 lakh cubic metre legacy waste.
While the fresh tenders were called on January 3, a pre-bid meeting for the same was held on Friday.
According to the sources, the technical bid for the bidders will open on January 22.
Mohali generates 100 metric tonnes (MT) of waste daily, including 40 MT wet and 60 MT mixed waste. In absence of bioremediation for nearly a year, the daily waste is getting dumped at the landfill without processing.
If the contract or a bid is approved by the Punjab local bodies department, legacy garbage processing can resume within a month, according to the officials.
Pertinently as per the rules, MC cannot have a dump site and rather can only have a place for solid waste management where the garbage should be processed completely instead of piling it up.
Bioremediation of city’s daily garbage, apart from the legacy waste collected at the 10-acre landfill for the past 15 years, was stalled in January this year after expiry of the previous contract.
