Residents raise a stink as waste concessionaire uses garbage collection point as dumping ground

The land belongs to the civic authority, confirmed a spokesperson for Ecogreen Energy, who said that the company has the MCG’s permission to dump there.

A waste collection site in Sector 29, just five minutes from Leisure Valley Park, has turned into a large dumping ground, as the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram’s (MCG) concessionaire for waste collection, Ecogreen Energy, continues to dump several truck loads of waste there daily.

MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav, however, said Ecogreen Energy had only been granted permission to use the site for waste collection. (HT Photo)

The land belongs to the civic authority, confirmed a spokesperson for Ecogreen Energy, who said that the company has the MCG’s permission to dump there.

Citizens frequenting the area have raised a stink over the situation of the dump, which has grown considerably in size over the last year. Multiple spot visits by Hindustan Times over the past week revealed that the site is frequented by smaller waste collection vehicles which are dumping mixed municipal waste on the open land, in violation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav, however, said Ecogreen Energy had only been granted permission to use the site for waste collection. While a dumping ground is akin to a landfill, such as the one in Bandhwari, a collection point is only meant as a central location where waste is received and segregated. “Daily lifting from the site needs to happen, I will look into the matter,” Yadav said.

Gaurav Joshi, COO, Ecogreen Energy, said, “The land is being used as a dumping ground until we build a transfer station there, just beside the dump. Waste collected from nearby areas is sent here, as it will increase our carbon footprint to ship it to our other transfer facilities, which are located some distance away.”

Ecogreen Energy currently has three functional transfer stations in Atul Kataria Chowk, DLF Phase 5 and Beriwala Bagh. Two more have been built in HSIIDC and Carterpuri, and are yet to begin operations. Joshi did not comment on when such a facility will be established in Sector 29.