Agency hired to remove 150,000 tonnes of legacy waste dumped at Indirapuram landfill

Two years after Indirapuram residents moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a bid to stop the dumping of solid waste at the landfill site at Shakti Khand, the

Two years after Indirapuram residents moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a bid to stop the dumping of solid waste at the landfill site at Shakti Khand, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation has hired an agency to deal with the dumped waste, estimated to be about 150,000 tonnes.

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The Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) will fund the project that is estimated to cost nearly ₹4 crore

“The agency which will start with use bio-remediation technique to process the waste at the site. The GDA has agreed to fund the project and the funds it will be deposited in an escrow account. We expect that the work will begin by October end. Under the project, the waste will be turned to manure,” said MS Tanwar, municipal-commissioner. The process is expected to be completed by April, 2021, he added.

Bio-remediation is a process to clean a polluted site and makes use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced micro-organisms to consume and break down environmental pollutants.

The petition with the NGT was filed by Confederation of trans-Hindon RWAs. It claimed that the site was not complying with the Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2016. Futher, burning of garbage here was aggravating poor air quality in the region, it said..

The tribunal had issued directions to the municipal corporation and GDA to ensure that the waste dump site at Indirapuram. During the further course of hearings, the latest on September 2, the tribunal took a strong view of the slow pace of action. “Let meaningful steps be now taken by the statutory authorities expeditiously and compliance report filed by e-mail, failing which there will be no other option except to take action personally against the senior officers on further failure,” the tribunal said.

The UP pollution control board (UPPCB) had stated that solid waste had reached height between five to 15 feet at different places. The report had also stated that the dump site was not a scientific landfill and continued dumping may percolate the generated leachate to ground water.

The GDA says that had managed to control the dumping of waste at the site.

“Dumping at the site has stopped. The GDA will transfer funds for the bio-remediation project to an escrow account. Since corporation is a maintenance agency and can deal better with solid waste, we have decided that they take up the bio-remediation project. The corporation has selected an agency and we have decided to provide funds,” said VN Singh, chief engineer of GDA.

The regional officials of the UPPCB officials said that they will be monitoring the progress.

“We will continue to contest the case till the waste is cleared. It is a source of unhygienic conditions and causes health issues for residents besides aiding air pollution if there is fire,” said Mohan Sangwan, general secretary of the federation which filed the petition.

In other case, with regard to 10 drains, the NGT had ordered a similar bioremediation process under the municipal corporation

“We have engaged the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to prepare detailed project report for 10 drains which are directly getting discharged, untreated, into river Hindon,” said Tanwar.

The 10 drains were identified as Karhera drain, Hindon Vihar drain, Kaila Bhatta drain, Arthala drain, Sarvodaya Nagar drain, Rahul Vihar drain, Indirapuram drain, Dasna drain, Nandgram Petrol Pump drain and drain at main gate of City Forest area.