Ghaziabad civic body scouts for land to set up waste plant as city turns into garbage dump

Some of the residents in Vaishali said even door-to-door collection vehicles of the corporation have not come to collect waste since the past three to four days

A solid waste crisis is looming over Ghaziabad city as daily waste collection activities have been hampered since the past one week owing to a standoff between the Ghaziabad municipal corporation and the concessionaire of the waste processing plant in Morta over “trucks from Delhi” .

Municipal officials said their waste processing plant in Morta, spread over 48 bighas of land, has been shut since the past week as the landlord has locked the gates and disallowed any further dumping at the site. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Municipal officials said their waste processing plant in Morta, spread over 48 bighas of land, has been shut since the past week as the landlord has locked the gates and disallowed any further dumping at the site.

Officials said the city generates about 1,400 metric tonnes of daily solid waste and door-to-door collection is taken up on a primary level by about 330 vehicles daily. This waste is further taken to about 31 secondary collection centres from where it is transported to Morta for processing.

“It has been days since solid waste was collected from high-rises in Kaushambi. Societies are dumping their waste at a common point in the high-rise. From there, it is taken away by corporation vehicles. Many of the high-rises are now trying to give this collected waste to private collectors for disposal. The authorities need to find a solution soon,” said VK Mittal, president of Kaushambi apartments residents’ welfare associations.

Some of the residents in Vaishali said even door-to-door collection vehicles of the corporation have not come to collect waste since the past three to four days.

“I have not seen any vehicles nor heard them coming -- they always play a song to alert residents. Since I have already deployed a private waste collector to take away household waste in a rickshaw, the bins in my house at least are empty,” said BK Pandey, a resident of Vaishali.

Councillors complain.

“The solid waste lifting in our ward has been severely hampered; the day-to-day collection vehicles are not coming these past few days. Residents are very hassled by the situation and they are now forced to dump the waste at a nearby vacant lot. Some of nearby wards are trying to rope in private tractors to take away the waste,” said Ravi Bhati, councillor from Ward 37 of Shalimar Garden (main).

HT team on Wednesday found garbage dumped in Sector 10, Vasundhara, along GT Road near Shyam Park and Rajendra Nagar, besides in Sahibabad Industrial Area.

Municipal officials said waste collection from several of the 31 secondary collection points too has been hampered.

“The waste processing site in Morta is shut at present, so the vehicles from secondary points are not going there. The door-to-door collection vehicles are still collecting waste from households and taking it to secondary sites. We are trying to resolve the issue by procuring alternative land for waste processing. The crisis will be resolved within a day or two,” said Mithilesh Kumar, corporation’s city health officer.

Nitin Gaur, municipal commissioner, said the land in Morta was procured by waste processing firm, Geron Engineering, but the landlord has shut the gates of the site.

“The site in Morta is shut at present and there is no waste processing going on. The landlord has locked the gates and is not allowing any further dumping. The land was leased to our waste processing firm and an FIR has been lodged against them. The landlord is asking for double the rent (per bigha of land),” said Gaur.

“We are trying to procure alternative land and have also floated tender (request for proposal) for selecting a new vendor,” Gaur said.

The issue erupted after city mayor Sunita Dayal on June 30 seized nine trucks, which she claimed were from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), ferrying solid waste to Ghaziabad’s Morta for processing.

On her directions, the corporation lodged an FIR at Nandgram police station against officials of Geron Engineering. It further alleged that Delhi’s waste was getting processed in Ghaziabad and the firm was charging Ghaziabad corporation for the same.

Bur Geron Engineering denied the allegations and said the trucks were acrrying refuse derived fuel to its private plant in Bahadarpur and not Morta. MCD also refuted the allegations and said no waste was ever sent to Ghaziabad for processing.

The company officials also submitted to the corporation and police the GPS tracking data from the nine vehicles and also documents mentioning that it was RDF and not solid waste.