First waste plant in Ghaziabad becomes operational

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has made operational the newly constructed 300 metric tonne capacity waste to composting plant in Pratap Vihar. The plant will help the corporation to process a major portion of the city’s 850 metric tonne of daily solid waste.

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has made operational the newly constructed 300 metric tonne capacity waste to composting plant in Pratap Vihar. The plant will help the corporation to process a major portion of the city’s 850 metric tonne of daily solid waste.

The plant will come as a major relief to residents as the Pratap Vihar landfill site faces saturation due to continuous dumping. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The plant will come as a major relief to residents as the Pratap Vihar landfill site faces saturation due to continuous dumping of solid waste. The composting plant will convert the solid waste into compost which will be sold by the corporation to get generate revenue.

“We have started dumping solid waste at the plant, which will take another 28 days to start processing the waste into compost. The pant will help us process nearly 300 metric tonnes till we are able to get the Dundahera plant -- presently caught up in litigation -- operational,” said Dr RK Yadav, the corporation’s city health officer.

According to the corporation’s plans, the rest of the daily solid waste generated by the city will be processed at Dundahera solid waste management plant once the case is settled by the court.

“After two months, we will undertake an audit to assess the plant’s functionality. After that, the plant can be handed over to a private agency for further operations. The decision will be taken at a later date,” Yadav said.

In the absence of any processing facility, a lot of solid waste also gets dumped on roadsides, in vacant plots and open fields. It is also burnt by people and ragpickers hiking pollution levels. The officials said the composting plant was to start operations in January but was delayed due to several reasons.