Okhla waste plant hits more roadblocks

Scores of residents from Okhla, Sukhdev Vihar and nearby Jamia Nagar, along with residents of a DJB colony, on Wednesday protested a proposed road joining Mathura Road and an under construction waste-to-energy plant in their neighbourhood.

Scores of residents from Okhla, Sukhdev Vihar and nearby Jamia Nagar, along with residents of a DJB colony, on Wednesday protested a proposed road joining Mathura Road and an under construction waste-to-energy plant in their neighbourhood.

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They thronged the office of the Okhla Sewage Treatment plant where a meeting of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Jindal ITF Ecopolis, and other officials was to be held to finalise the road details.

The residents were already against the plant, because they fear it will discharge cancer causing emissions, substantiated in the environment assessment report.

The MCD, in collaboration with Jindal, is building the plant at Okhla, which is expected to burn about 2,010 tonnes of solid waste every day into 16 MW of electricity.

The proposed road is for the trucks — about 400 daily — that will carry the garbage to the plant.

"Imagine the havoc that would be caused due to daily up and down of 400 trucks. We neither want this plant nor the road in our neighbourhood," said Asha Arora, who heads the Okhla anti-incinerator committee.

Residents from the nearby Delhi Jal Board colony too joined in the protest. “The proposed road runs parallel to the boundary of an MCD school in the neighbourhood. The trucks will pose a problem for our children studying in the school,” said Dev Raj Bhadana, a union leader residing in the colony.