East Delhi corporation reduces construction waste dumping sites

East Delhi will now have 17 dumping sites instead of 61; the region generates 750-800 tonnes of construction debris every day

Trying a new approach to tackle illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to reduce the number of designated notified spots where the debris can be dumped.

A dusty stretch at Karnal Road. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

This is in contrast to the approach taken in the last few years wherein civic bodies have attempted to expand the number of such sites.

Vikas Anand, the east corporation commissioner, issued directions on Friday to reduce the number of such designated spots from 61 to just 17. A senior municipal official, who was part of the review meeting, said that the civic body will focus on round-the-clock monitoring and vigilance at the 17 sites. He said expanding the number of such sites has not led to the desired result in the last year.

“In the last few years, we noticed that it is difficult to man so many sites, which leads to even more illegal dumping of construction waste. In many cases, the owners and builders dump the debris 100-200m away from a designated site, which increases the problem. The idea behind the new order is to push the bulk generators of construction waste to directly deposit the C&D waste in the Shastri Park processing plant. There will be round-the-clock monitoring of the limited number of sites,” the official said requesting anonymity. The two administrative zones under the jurisdiction of EDMC-- Shahdara North and Shahdara South-- generate 750-800 tonnes of C&D waste every day, and the civic body operates a 1,000 TPD (tonne per day) construction waste processing plant in a 2.5-acre facility in Shastri Park.

After the east corporation’s order on Friday, Delhi will have 212 notified construction waste dumping sites. The city is estimated to generate 3,711 TPD construction waste and has four processing plants in Jahangirpuri, Shastri Park, Mundka, and Bakkarwala. The plants utilise construction waste to create recycled materials such as interlocking tiles, kerbstones, and other construction materials.

On October 6, 2021, the civic body announced punitive action will be taken against developers and builders who fail to deposit the construction waste at the Shastri Park facility, adding that their approved building plans could be cancelled. Each area’s Junior Engineer will visit major construction sites fortnightly to collect and check C&D waste deposition slips.

Rakesh Gupta, the spokesperson of the EDMC, said that separate inspection teams have been deployed for dedicated monitoring of biomass burning, unauthorised dumping of C&D waste, and polluting industries. “Unlike previous years, these teams will be deployed in two shifts for round-the-clock for monitoring and penalisation of defaulters. Special attention is being paid to pollution hotspot areas of Anand Vihar and Vivek Vihar,” he added.