Delhi plans sixth WtE plant at Ghazipur

Currently, the MCD processes around 8,100 tonnes of waste at four WtE plants, while 4,360 tonnes of waste end up at Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfills, which are already oversaturated

Close on the heels of securing environmental clearance for a new waste-to-energy (WtE) plant in Narela, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is working on setting up a sixth WtE plant, at Ghazipur in east Delhi, officials aware of the matter said. An agency will be hired to reclaim around 15 acres at the Ghazipur landfill for the plant, senior municipal officials said, adding that the MCD on July 9 invited bids to set up a 2,000-tonne-per-day plant.

MCD will clear 15 acres to set up a WtE plant at the Ghazipur landfill site. (HT Archive)

Currently, the MCD processes around 8,100 tonnes of waste at four WtE plants, while 4,360 tonnes of waste end up at Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfills, which are already oversaturated, a senior municipal official said.

“Two new plants are being set up to fill this gap and cater to future waste generation. 3,000 TPD (tonne per day) Narela facility has been granted environmental nod and a second plant will be set up at Ghazipur with 2000 TPD capacity,” the official said.

Faced with a waste management crisis and oversaturated dump sites, the general trend in Delhi is towards using incineration as the primary method of waste processing. MCD currently operates WtE plants at Bawana (2,000 TPD), Tehkhand (2,000 TPD), Okhla (1,950 TPD) and Ghazipur (1,300 TPD). Barring the newest addition at Tehkhand, which was inaugurated in October 2022, Delhi’s WtE facilities have been fined by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee for not meeting norms.

An MCD report set a target of December 2027 for the Narela plant and December 2028 for the Ghazipur plant.

The bids invited by the corporation specify that 15 acres of recovered land will be leased to the concessionaire for setting up the WtE plant. “The tenure of the project will be 27 years out of which two years will be provided for construction of the plant. The operator will be pay an annual lease amount of ₹20 lakh per acre in the first 12 years and ₹25 lakh per annum for the remaining contract period,” reads the MCD’s tender document, a copy of which was accessed by HT.

MCD plans to dispose of the inerts, ashes and burnt material at another site within a two-kilometre radius. The water requirement for the facility will be met through DJB’s Kondli sewage treatment plant (STP), which is located around 3.5 kilometres from the site, it said.

According to MCD estimates, the Ghazipur plant will be set up at a cost of ₹488.77 crore, and its operational cost will be ₹31.6 crore per year. An MCD official said that the viability gap funding of ₹151 crore has been sanctioned by the central government for the Narela-Bawana facility, while ₹122 crore has been sought for the Ghazipur facility.