Commuters decry garbage dumping on critical stretch

Unattended solid municipal waste and construction debris dumped along the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) in Sector 65 has been causing a strong foul odour and severe traffic snarls in the area, commuters said on Thursday

Unattended solid municipal waste and construction debris dumped along the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) in Sector 65 has been causing a strong foul odour and severe traffic snarls in the area, commuters said on Thursday.

The spot check also revealed that water had accumulated at the site and there was no boundary wall around it.

The arterial road connects Golf Course Extension Road to the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway and serves thousands of office-goers and residents daily. However, commuters said the spot is increasingly becoming an informal dumping ground.

During an HT spot check on Wednesday, mounds of untreated garbage, concrete rubble, and broken bricks spilled onto the roadside and encroached upon adjacent vacant plots near the commercial hub, M3M 65th Avenue. Additionally, two or three waste-loaded trucks were parked along the road.

Speaking to HT, Rohit Ahluwalia, who commutes daily between Sector 57 and Manesar, said these trucks encroach upon the motorable lane, forcing traffic to bottleneck into a single file.

“The stench is nauseating, especially in the afternoon heat. Two-wheeler riders bear the brunt, and when the wind picks up, loose dust from the C&D waste severely reduces visibility on a high-speed road like the SPR,” Ahluwalia added.

HT also spoke to the people dumping the waste at the site. According to them, the site had been identified as a secondary collection point by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) a month back.

The spot check also revealed that water had accumulated at the site and there was no boundary wall around it.

When contacted, area sanitation inspector Jitender Kumar said, “It is a temporary secondary collection point and might be cancelled anytime. MCG is planning to take some steps in tackling SCPs.”

“We will send an enforcement and sanitation team to inspect the stretch immediately. If private contractors or unauthorised tippers are dumping C&D waste or parking loaded vehicles on the road, strict challans will be issued, and the area will be cleared,” he said. Kumar denied seeking permission from or providing notice to the pollution board.

While MCG does not require prior formal authorisation from the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) to designate a waste transfer station, the facility remains subject to strict statutory environmental norms.

HT also reached out to the traffic police in the area. Traffic inspector (East-IV) Tejpal Sangwan told HT, “Traffic police weren’t informed of the dumping. Our teams have removed the parked trucks from the street, and an inspector has been deployed at the site to ensure such an incident does not happen again.”

Under the Solid Waste Management Rules, a site must be covered, segregated, and cleared daily to prevent open dumping and toxic leachate discharge; failing to comply exposes the civic body to routine HSPCB inspections, National Green Tribunal (NGT) scrutiny, closure notices, and steep environmental compensation penalties.