MCD gets 10 acres in Ghazipur for setting up fresh waste processing plant

Of the 10-acre site, five acres will be used for fresh waste processing, while the remaining land will be used for producing compressed biogas from wet waste

In a bid to reduce the fresh waste load on the Ghazipur landfill, a 10-acre plot near the Integrated Freight Complex has been handed over to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for setting up a new waste processing facility, senior municipal officials said. The civic body has also sought three acres in each of the 12 administrative zones for processing fresh waste and developing large material recovery centres.

The Ghazipur landfill (above) has a remediation deadline of 2029, unlike the Okhla and Bhalswa landfills, which, according to government sources, are likely to be cleared this year (HT Archive)

A senior MCD official said that after several follow-ups, the corporation managed to secure 10 acres from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). “The site, located next to the paper market in Ghazipur, will be used for establishing the city’s fresh waste processing plant. The proposed facility will have the capacity to process at least 800 metric tonnes of waste per day,” the official added.

Of the 10-acre site, five acres will be used for fresh waste processing, while the remaining land will be used for producing compressed biogas from wet waste.

The project is expected to significantly reduce the burden on the Ghazipur landfill by diverting fresh municipal waste away from the legacy waste site.

The Ghazipur landfill has a remediation deadline of 2029, unlike the Okhla and Bhalswa landfills, which, according to government sources, are likely to be cleared this year.

A senior municipal official said the pace of the biomining project to flatten the three dump sites has increased, but the dumping of fresh waste continues to slow overall progress. The biomining process uses rotating sieves to separate various components of waste and is useful for tackling legacy waste, which has decomposed to a large extent.

“But for fresh waste, a different process is required. Our teams had visited Lucknow to study their fresh waste processing plants and similar plants will now be set up in Delhi,” the official added.

A second senior civic official said the corporation operates several smaller material recovery facility centres with the help of NGOs, which process fresh waste but only on a small scale. Currently, 155 material recovery facilities are operational, with a cumulative processing capacity of 252 tonnes. MCD officials said the fresh waste processing units will separate wet waste, plastics and other non-biodegradable materials, which will then be processed separately.