Bandhwari landfill: Six acres cleared for WTE plant, work to start imminently

A letter issued by MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja to MCG’s concessionaire, Ecogreen, last week states that six of the 10 acres, for setting up the WTE plant at the Bandhwari landfill, have been cleared through treatment of legacy waste. Officials of Ecogreen said they are waiting for a formal letter from the MCG on the matter

After clearing legacy waste from six acres at the Bandhwari landfill, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has directed its concessionaire to start the process of setting up a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant at the site. Officials said that four more acres, required for the WTE plant, will be cleared by November.

An MoU for setting up the WTE plant at the Bandhwari landfill was signed in August 2017 by Ecogreen, the Haryana government, MCG, Municipal Corporation of Faridabad, and the directorate of Urban Local Bodies. (HT Archive)

Hariom Attri, joint commissioner, MCG, said, “Clearing legacy waste at the landfill is being carried out on a large scale. The setting up of the WTE is aimed at expediting this process. We have cleared adequate space to start the construction of the WTE plant and are in the process of clearing more area to facilitate its full construction.”

A letter issued by MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja to MCG’s concessionaire, Ecogreen, last week states that six of the 10 acres for setting up the WTE plant have been cleared through treatment of legacy waste.

“Out of 10 acres proposed land for WTE, six acres land have been cleared by treatment of legacy waste and by taking other measures. Now, this six acres is being handed over to you (Ecogreen) for construction of WTE and remaining four acres will be reclaimed and handover to you shortly,” a letter sent by Ahuja to Ecogreen, a copy of which is with HT, stated.

In the letter, Ahuja directed Ecogreen to take over the six acres immediately to “start the work of construction of WTE plant without any delay.”

Officials of Ecogreen said they are waiting for a formal letter from the MCG on the matter.

Sanjeev Sharma, spokesperson, Ecogreen, said, “We are yet to receive any formal letter on the matter from the MCG. However, both the MCG and Ecogreen have been working together towards ensuring the WTE project can be started at the earliest possible timeline.”

During a meeting with Ecogreen representatives in June, Ahuja had set the company an October deadline for starting work on setting up the Bandhwari WTE project.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up the WTE plant was signed in August 2017 by Ecogreen, the Haryana government, MCG, Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF), and the directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB). Despite getting clearances from the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) in December 2019 for setting up a 15 megawatt (MW) capacity WTE, the project has been stuck due to lack of space at the landfill.

Although the government had given environmental clearance for the setting up a 15 MW WTE plant at Bandhwari in November 2019, the proposed expansion of the plant to 25 MW had evoked a strong reaction from citizens, including environmentalists, doctors, and residents of villages near the landfill during a public hearing held on August 31 by the HSPCB.

A public hearing is a prerequisite for obtaining environmental clearance from the ministry of environment, forests, and climate change (MoEF&CC) for setting up a WTE project. For the 15 MW project, a public hearing was conducted in March 2018.

“The MCG needs to show photographic or video evidence about the action they carried out with the legacy waste cleared from the six acre. There needs to be proper accountability on whether the cleared waste was scientifically treated or simply shifted to a location outside the city,” Vaishali Rana, a city-based environmentalist, said.