Deadline to clear Okhla landfill pushed to October

Delhi's MCD extends the Okhla landfill clearance deadline to October 2026, citing slow progress in waste processing and challenges from monsoon.

New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has once again extended the deadline for clearing the Okhla landfill site — this time by three months till October 2026.

A senior MCD official said the department has now revised the target to October 2026. (Hindustan Times)

The newly appointed Bharatiya Janata Party-led Delhi government had previously committed that the Okhla landfill would be cleared by July and the Bhalswa site by December 2026.

A senior MCD official said the department has now revised the target to October 2026. “Dumping of fresh waste on the site has slowed down net progress. This revised target has been outlined in a report submitted to the Delhi government,” the official said, adding that both legacy and fresh waste processing will now continue till October 2026.

According to an MCD report seen by HT, approximately 1.48 million metric tonnes of legacy waste remains at the Okhla landfill. While 9,000 metric tonnes of old waste is being processed daily, the complete disposal is now projected to take another two years.

The biomining project was originally ordered by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on July 17, 2019, which directed the then three civic bodies to reclaim landfill land within one year. Biomining involves separating plastic, paper, cloth, sand, and bricks from legacy waste using trommel machines.

A second official said progress is likely to slow further during July and August due to monsoons. However, the MCD has not revised deadlines for Bhalswa and Ghazipur. Currently, Ghazipur — with 6.91 million metric tonnes of legacy waste — is targeted for clearance by December 2027, while Bhalswa’s 2.11 million metric tonnes is to be cleared by December 2026.

The project has missed multiple deadlines. After the 2019 NGT order setting a one-year target, the deadline was moved to March 2023, then December 2024, then July 2026, and now October 2026.

The Okhla landfill, where dumping began in 1996, spans 62 acres. By 2019, the waste mound had risen to 60 metres.

2019, the height of the waste mound had reached 60 meters.