‘Had to resume dumping on cleared Singhola waste mound’: MCD to NGT

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it resumed dumping drain silt at the Singhola site despite clearing it through bio-mining, owing “to the urgency of pre-monsoon desilting operations”

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it resumed dumping drain silt at the Singhola site despite clearing it through bio-mining, owing “to the urgency of pre-monsoon desilting operations”. The civic body said it is now setting up a silt processing facility nearby to prevent the formation of another waste mound in Outer Delhi.

Delhi currently has no dedicated silt processing facility.

Delhi currently has no dedicated silt processing facility.

In an affidavit uploaded on August 3, MCD said it had resumed depositing silt at Singhola “owing to the urgency of pre-monsoon desilting operation”. It added that a facility for the daily processing and disposal of incoming silt is being established to avoid the creation of a fresh mound.

“The earlier tenders were closed and recalled. Revised tenders have now been floated and, after financial evaluation and approval of the competent authority, the work will be awarded for setting up the facility,” the affidavit states.

The NGT had taken suo motu cognisance of a Hindustan Times report, “New waste mounds creep up on capital”, published on November 4, 2024, which highlighted the emergence of two new waste mounds at Singhola and Narela despite the city’s ongoing landfill remediation efforts.

By July 2022, around 900,000 metric tonnes of silt had accumulated there. The material was dumped primarily by MCD’s Shahdara North and Shahdara South zones, while the public works department and the irrigation and flood control department also used the site.

Although MCD completed bio-mining and cleared the accumulated silt last year, dumping resumed soon afterwards.

Earlier this year, the green tribunal sought a status report on the clearance of waste at Singhola and Narela, along with timelines for remediating both sites and commissioning a new waste-to-energy (WTE) plant.

Regarding the Narela-Bawana site, MCD said the waste-to-energy plant operator has begun reclaiming legacy refuse-derived fuel (RDF) as part of the remediation plan. According to the affidavit, the concessionaire aims to retrieve the accumulated RDF by September 2026, after which the site will be capped with a 600mm layer of compacted soil and vegetation to convert it into a green mound.

MCD also informed the tribunal that work on a proposed 3,000-tonnes-per-day waste-to-energy plant at Narela-Bawana has been awarded and environmental clearance has been obtained. However, the project has been delayed because two 400kV transmission lines running through the site have not yet been shifted despite meetings chaired by the MCD commissioner, the chief secretary and the urban development minister.