MCD seeks ideas for reuse of the reclaimed landfill land

Consultations are also being carried out to identify land where fresh waste can be diverted, in order to speed up the legacy waste removal from the existing sites.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has invited bids seeking proposals for utilising the land which will be reclaimed after the three overflowing dumpsites in the Capital will be cleared in the next two years, senior MCD officials said.

MCD launched the biomining project to clear its three oversaturated landfill sites in July 2019 on NGT’s orders. (HT Archive)

Further, consultations are also being carried out to identify land where fresh waste can be diverted, in order to speed up the legacy waste removal from the existing sites.

The three landfill sites at southeast Delhi’s Okhla, north Delhi’s Bhalswa, and east Delhi’s Ghazipur cover over 200 acres. MCD officials said the sites are targeted to be cleared by July 2026, December, 2026, and December 2027, respectively.

The NGT in its order dated October 11, 2022 had issued directions regarding utilisation of reclaimed land. “...develop dense forest in at least one third of the land occupied by the dumpsite, after the sites are cleared. One third to be utilised for setting up integrated waste processing facilities. The remaining one third can be utilised for any other purpose such as tourism and recreational centres with the involvement of an appropriate agency on PPP or Hybrid Annuity Model consistent with the environment concerned without affecting the use of the 2/3 mentioned purposes,” the order stated.

A senior civic official said the current bids have been invited for the remaining one third of land which will be reclaimed from each site. “We have already carried out Bamboo plantations on parts of reclaimed land in Okhla and Bhalswa. There is a proposal to set up construction and demolition plants over a portion of reclaimed Okhla land while a new waste to energy plant is expected to come up over a part of reclaimed Ghazipur site,” the official explained.

“MCD invites preliminary proposals from interested stakeholders regarding sustainable and innovative uses for the reclaimed land i.e. other than the land meant for dense forest and waste processing facility,” the MCD tender read. The process is likely to be wrapped up by September 30, officials said.

Secondly, MCD is working to find another waste dumping site so the existing landfills, which are currently undergoing biomining and remediation, are not burdened anymore, an official said. On September 15, Union urban development minister Manohar Lal Khattar, announced that the Bhalswa site is targeted to be cleared in the next one year and also asked Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to provide 5-10 acre to MCD where fresh waste can be dumped.

“When the fresh waste keeps getting dumped, the overall progress is slowed down. It becomes a Santon Ka Katora (saint’s bowl)- the more you remove from it, the more it gets filled,” he had said then. Similar solutions of alternative land pockets are being explored for other two sites, he added.

Biomining is a process of separating components of legacy waste such as plastic, paper, cloth, sand, and bricks by passing them through trommel machines, which act as cylindrical rotating sieves. MCD launched the biomining project to clear its three oversaturated landfill sites in July 2019 on NGT’s orders.

The tribunal had directed that legacy waste dumps are to be “cleared within one year but substantial progress must be made and demonstrated within six months”. The project has seen several delays and deadline revisions due to shortage of space, dumping of fresh waste, financial and procedural hurdles.

An MCD official said that a site in north Delhi’s Singhola, which was used for dumping silt, is currently being considered for diverting fresh waste from Bhalswa and another location is being explored in Ghazipur. Out of the 11,000 tonnes of waste generated daily, four to five thousand tonnes ends up in landfill sites.