North Delhi civic body to offer closed garbage collection sites to RWAs

The civic body said closed/abandoned dhalaos located on the RoW (right of way) of roads will be demolished to improve the traffic flow

New Delhi: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation will offer several of its recently shut dhalaos (garbage collection points) to residents’ welfare associations (RWAs), market associations, NGOs and private firms for creating public facilities like mini public libraries, recreation hall for senior citizens and charitable dispensaries.

Of the 246 dhalaos shut by the civic body, 113 are located in the Rohini zone, 71 in Keshavpuram, 36 in Civil Lines, 10 in Karol Bagh, 9 in City-Sadar Paharganj zone and 7 in Narela. (Picture for representation only/Sanchit Khanna-HT Archive)

The municipal body has so far closed 246 dhalaos while another 100 points will be shut down before December this year, as per a report submitted by the municipal commissioner. The civic body, however, said closed/abandoned dhalaos located on the RoW (right of way) of roads will be demolished to improve the traffic flow.

A senior municipal official stated that a large number of dhalaos are getting vacant due to installation of fixed compactor garbage collection machines to compress solid waste. “Each compactor leads to closure of three-four dhalaos as it can handle much larger volume of municipal solid waste in smaller space,” the official said.

Of the 246 dhalaos shut by the civic body, 113 are located in the Rohini zone, 71 in Keshavpuram, 36 in Civil Lines, 10 in Karol Bagh, 9 in City-Sadar Paharganj zone and 7 in Narela. “More than 50% of the dhalaos in the three zones handled by the private concessionaire have been closed down. The new fixed compactor stations have a capacity to handle 15-20 metric tons of garbage,” said the official.

North MCD standing committee chairman Jogi Ram Jain said that the policy has been approved by the committee and it is likely to be operationalised in a month. “Earlier, we were planning to use the space from dhalaos closed in prime locations for revenue generation projects but most of those sites are located on PWD roads so it would have led to more legal tussle and delays. We have decided that the spaces will be handed over to RWA and NGOs which plan to use it for non-profit public welfare purposes,” he said.

Jain said that the cost of repairing and redeveloping these sites will have to be borne by the allottees. “Projects like charitable dispensaries, subsidised meals, public libraries or senior citizen centres can be undertaken. A few sites which are leading to congestion will be demolished and some will be used to develop office/space for safai karamcharis,” Jain added.