Ghaziabad municipal corporation expediting plans for landfill site in Galand

Officials of the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) said that they are expediting the process for setting up the proposed waste-to-energy plant in Galand and get rid of the temporary landfill site in Pratap Vihar.

The plant at Galand, near NH-24, will be able to produce 15 megawatts of electricity that will be sold to the electricity department by the contractor. The plant is pegged at Rs200 crore and will be able to dispose of 1,000-1,500 metric tonnes of daily solid waste. The city, at present, produces nearly 950 metric tonnes of solid waste every day but has no facility to dispose it of in a scientific manner.

“We have plans to develop a waste-to-energy plant in Galand for which the Ghaziabad development authority has alloted 18 acres. We called for an expression of interest and 10 companies have participated. Their technical evaluation is in progress. The work will begin soon,” said CP Singh, Ghaziabad municipal commissioner.

“Further, we will have to shift from the Pratap Vihar landfill site and cannot leave the site in its present condition. We have to get its bioremediation done and the work on the detailed project report is in progress. With the two projects, we hope to clean up the landfill site at the earliest,” he said.

In the last decade, Ghaziabad has turned from an industrial town to an affordable housing hub but still, lacks the means to scientifically dispose of daily solid waste. The entire solid waste is collected by vehicles and dumped in Pratap Vihar near river Hindon.

In July, the corporation had also sanctioned Rs12.5 crore for construction of five solid waste transfer stations, one in each zone. The transfer station will handle solid waste collection, segregation and compression before it is transferred to the landfill site or to the proposed waste-to-energy plant in Galand.

However, it is to be noted that the GMC has failed to run the solid waste composting plant in Pratap Vihar, which was supposed to process nearly 400 metric tonnes of solid waste to manure, due to high operational cost. The facility was developed at a cost of nearly Rs4.5 crore but is non-operational at present due to heavy operating cost, estimated to be nearly Rs26.5 lakh per month.