3 civic bodies told to submit new deadlines for bio-mining of Delhi's landfills

The three municipal corporations have been asked to submit revised deadlines and action plan for the completion of bio-mining at the three major landfills at Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur, a senior official overseeing the project said on Wednesday

The three municipal corporations have been asked to submit revised deadlines and action plan for the completion of bio-mining at the three major landfills at Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur, a senior official overseeing the project said on Wednesday.

New Delhi, India - Sept. 5, 2017: Trucks dumping garbage at Ghazipur Landfill site in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday, September 5, 2017. (Photo by Ravi Choudhary/ Hindustan Times) (Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

In a recent review meeting of the state-level committee overseeing the project, chaired by the chief secretary, it was pointed out that the project progress was “very slow” and “incremental”.

The data from the three civic bodies shows that almost two years after the project was started, on the orders of National Green Tribunal (NGT), only around 11% of the total legacy waste at the three sites has been excavated and treated. According to the old set of deadlines submitted to the NGT, Bhalswa landfill is to be cleared by June 2022, Okhla landfill by March 2023 and Ghazipur landfill by December 2023.

Before the start of the project in July 2019, the three landfill sites cumulatively had 280 lakh tonnes of legacy waste. The bio-mining process is currently suspended on account of the monsoon. The data from three corporations shows that a total of 3.46 million tonnes of legacy waste had been bio-mined till July when the monsoon arrived.

Data submitted by North MCD shows that 1.8 million tonnes of waste was bio-mined from Bhalswa landfill, nearly 22% of the total legacy waste at the site.

Similarly, South MCD has bio-mined 630,000 tonnes of legacy waste from Okhla landfill.