Three more private agencies hired by MCG to remove waste from Bandhwari

Naresh Kumar, joint commissioner of MCG, said 700,000 metric tonnes of waste has been processed and 2.14 million metric tonnes of waste is yet to be processed

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has hired three more private agencies to process waste from the Bandhwari landfill and they are to set up processing units at the landfill within a month, said civic officials on Monday, even as the deadline to process legacy waste was extended to April next year from November this year.

A JCB machine tackles the waste mountain at the Bandhwari landfill site on the Gurugram-Faridabad Road on Monday. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Earlier, there were four new agencies of which one has completed the task and three are still processing waste at the landfill. The decision was taken by the MCG officials earlier this month while preparing the action taken report that is to be submitted before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which is monitoring the waste removal from the landfill.

Naresh Kumar, joint commissioner of MCG, said 700,000 metric tonnes of waste has been processed and 2.14 million metric tonnes of waste is yet to be processed along with fresh waste that continues to be dumped there. “The new agencies will each clear and process 200,000 tonnes of waste and the landfill will be cleared in a timebound manner. We will issue a work tender to the agencies and the capacity of waste processing will increase from November 1,” he said.

Kumar said they are involving more private agencies to expedite legacy waste processing at Bandhwari. “Under the contract, the new agencies will be given the responsibility to process five lakh (500,000) metric tonnes each of legacy waste. Even Delhi processes 20,000 metric tonnes daily and we want to touch that figure so that the site can be cleared within six months,” he said.

The new agencies will use latest machines to segregate the waste into different categories such as organic fines, bricks, stones, plastics, metals and cloth rags, and send them for disposal in an eco-friendly manner, said officials.

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

Gurugram dumps around 100 tonnes of garbage at the Bandhwari landfill daily. At present, the landfill has around 2.1 million tonnes of waste and is estimated to be 36m tall, said the MCG.

On December 30, to resolve the issue of excess legacy waste in 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 new agencies will have to first undertake bio-remediation of waste in Bandhwari and then the waste will pass through trommel machines to produce compost, inert (concrete waste) and refuse derived fuel (RDF), said MCG officials.