Baijal directs civic bodies to increase capacity of waste to energy plants

The L-G’s ordered these two steps to ensure that there would not be any further increase in the mounds of garbage at Bhalswa and Ghazipur.

In a meeting with officials of the three municipal corporations of Delhi, lieutenant governor Anil Baijal directed the civic bodies on Tuesday to increase the capacity of waste-to-energy plants in order to cater to more municipal garbage, which is otherwise being dumped at the landfill sites.

Garbage piles up outside a waste disposal area at Ganesh Nagar in New Delhi. (Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

The direction came just four days after a portion of the garbage mound at Ghazipur collapsed on September 1, killing two people. The Ghazipur dumping site had long outlived its lifespan and had also exceeded the permissible height of 20 metres. It was nearly 50 metres when it came crashing down.

Baijal directed the commissioner of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to immediately expand the capacity of the existing waste-to-energy plant so that it can tackle an extra 650 metric tonnes of municipal waste. Similar directions were also given to the North Delhi Municipal Commissioner to increase the capacity of the Narela-Bawana plant to take an additional load of 1,900 metric tonnes of municipal waste. The plant caters to around 2,000 metric tonnes of waste at present.

The L-G’s ordered these two steps to ensure that there would not be any further increase in the mounds of garbage at Bhalswa and Ghazipur.

Baijal was chairing a meeting at Raj Niwas to discuss the programme for processing of entire solid waste generated in Delhi with specific timelines and immediate solution for solid waste management at Ghazipur and other landfill sites.

Senior officials also informed Baijal that the garbage mound at Ghazipur would be cleared within two years beginning November. The garbage would be used by NHAI for construction of service roads.

The lieutenant governor has also convened a meeting on Thursday to find out a solution for the piling garbage at Bhalswa. The meeting would be attended by experts from IIT Delhi.

East Delhi garbage

In the meeting, the L-G also ordered the EDMC to send 500 metric tonne of garbage to Okhla waste-to-energy plant in south Delhi from Wednesday.

After the collapse of a potion of Ghazipur landfill on Friday, the L-G had banned dumping of garbage at the east Delhi site and issued directions to dump garbage in Rani Khera area under North MCD. However, EDMC trucks could not dump garbage at the new location after the locals protested the move.

As a result, garbage was not lifted from east Delhi areas for two consecutive days. Having failed to find any solution on Monday evening, the EDMC decided to continue dumping garbage at the Ghazipur landfill (at a portion of land near methane plant) under strict supervision.

“In the meeting today, we shared the details with L-G after which he issued directions to send 500 metric tonne of waste to Okhla waste-to-energy plant. In addition to that, another 1,300 tonne is being utilised at Ghazipur waste-to-energy plant. And rest 1,000 tonne will be dumped at the Ghazipur landfill,” EDMC commissioner Ranbir Singh said.

As per senior EDMC officials, 1,600 tonne of garbage was removed from dhalaos on Monday and 2,200 tonnes removed on Tuesday. “We will be able to clean all dhaloas by Wednesday evening,” said senior official from department of environment management services.

Meanwhile, no clarity emerged from the meeting of EDMC officials with NGT’s special committee members. “However, later in evening, the committee members shared the plan to visit the site at Ghonda Gurjan. We are keeping our fingers crossed,” an official said.