MCD working on 4 new waste processing units in Delhi

The four facilities are to come up in Bawana, Singhola, and at the reclaimed lands at Bhalswa and Okhla landfills.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is planning to set up four new waste disposal facilities with a cumulative capacity of 5,100 tonne of waste per day (TPD), a senior civic official said. The four facilities are to come up in Bawana, Singhola, and at the reclaimed lands at Bhalswa and Okhla landfills.

There are currently three saturated landfills in the city, in Ghazipur, Bhalswa, and Okhla. (HT Archive)

“Floating of tenders for fresh waste processing has been approved at 1,800 TPD at Bhalswa over an area of 12 acres; 700 TPD at Singhola over 6.62 acres; 1,400 TPD at Okhla over 10 acres of reclaimed area, and 1,200 TPD on 10 acres in Bawana. The total capacity will be 5,100 TPD,” an MCD report mentioned.

Officials said that the pace of biomining to flatten the three existing dumpsites at Ghazipur, Bhalswa, and Okhla has increased, but the continued dumping of fresh waste is slowing down the net progress.

Biomining is a scientific process which uses rotating sieves for excavating, treating, and segregating accumulated municipal solid waste to reclaim valuable resources and land. On the three Delhi dumpsites, biomining began in 2019 following a National Green Tribunal order that directed legacy waste to be cleared within a year.

“In case of fresh waste, different processing is required as the wet waste component is much higher. Our teams had visited Lucknow to study their fresh waste processing plants and similar projects will now be replicated in Delhi,” the official added.

Delhi generates around 11,332 tonnes of waste everyday with 11,000 tonnes coming from MCD areas, 256 TPD from the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) areas, and 72 TPD from cantonment. Around 4,000 tonnes of unprocessed waste ends up in the oversaturated landfill site. Overall, Delhi has a 27.5% gap in waste generation and processing.

How much waste does Delhi generate?

A senior civic official said the corporation operates several smaller material recovery facilities (MRFs) being operated with the help of NGOs which process and separate the components of fresh waste. However, these work at very small scales.

Currently, 155 MRFs are operating with a cumulative processing capacity of 252 tonnes per day. MCD officials said that the fresh waste processing units will separate wet waste, plastics and other non-biodegradable material which will be processed separately.