Four private agencies hired by MCG to remove waste from Bandhwari

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has hired four private agencies to remove waste from the Bandhwari landfill and to also set up processing units at the landfill within a month, said officials in the know of the matter

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has hired four private agencies to remove waste from the Bandhwari landfill and to also set up processing units at the landfill within a month, said officials in the know of the matter.

Gurugram, India-December 23, 2022: A view of Bandhwari waste treatment plant where construction of the 25 MW capacity Waste-to-Energy Plant that will be set up on 10 acres of land in will be set up in at Gurugram-Faridabad road, in Gurugram, India, on Friday, 23 December 2022. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)(Pic to go with Leena Dhankar's story)

The decision was taken by the MCG officials in November while preparing the action taken report that is to be submitted before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on January 15, said officials.

Also, the civic body has extended the deadline for dumping waste at the Badhwari landfill to March 31 after which no more waste would be dumped at the site, which is located in the Aravallis, said officials.

The landfill site in Bandhwari is spread over 28.5 acres of land, of which 10 acres will be utilised for setting up a waste-to-energy plant.

Gurugram dumps around 100 tonnes of garbage at the Bandhwari landfill daily. At present, the landfill has around 2.5 million tonnes of waste and is estimated to be 38m tall, said the MCG.

On December 30, to resolve the issue of excess legacy waste dumped at Bandhwari, a state committee constituted by the NGT decided that from February 15, 2023, onwards, 70% fresh waste generated by Gurugram and 50% waste from Faridabad will not be sent to the landfill.

The committee headed by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) chairman P Raghavendra Rao also fixed March 31, 2023,as the deadline post which no waste can be dumped at Bandhwari. It was also decided that the MCG will submit a revised timeline to the NGT regarding the processing of legacy waste.

PC Meena, MCG commissioner, said four agencies have been finalised and work order will be issued to them shortly to clear the legacy waste from the landfill. “The new agencies will each clear and process 200,000 tonnes of waste from the landfill. The waste will be processed at the plant and will be cleared in a timebound manner, the commissioner said.

The new agencies will have to first do bio-remediation of waste at Bandhwari and then the waste will pass through trommel machines to produce compost, inert (concrete waste) and refuse derived fuel (RDF),” he said.

Meena said the agencies will have to follow the process properly.They will have to submit a disposal certificate based on which payments will be made. “We will also verify the certificates. We have set a target to clear the legacy waste at the landfill by September this year,” he said.

The MCG chief visited Bandwari plant on Wednesday and took stock of the situation. He said he has directed Ecogreen Energy, a concessionaire of the MCG to expedite the work of waste to energy plant so that it can be ready by June 2024.

MCG joint commissioner Naresh Kumar said directions have been given to the two processing units at the landfill to increase their capacity from 6,500 metric tonnes to 10,000 metric tonnes daily. “We have also explored fresh sites for fresh waste processing at Begumpur Khatola, Daultabad and Kherki Majra village. The capacity of the five material recovery facilities (MRFs) will be increased by next month,” he said.