New Delhi, Oct 29 The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has sought land from the Delhi Development Authority and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board to set up waste-processing plants, as the civic body struggles to keep pace with the city’s daily garbage generation.
A civic body official said the MCD had identified four locations for the proposed facilities — Ghummanhera and Kharkhari Nahar in the Najafgarh zone, and Rani Khera and Sultanpur Dabas in the Narela zone.
The corporation wrote to the DDA on September 28 regarding the land requirement, the official said.
The search for additional sites comes as Delhi generates around 13,500 tonnes of municipal waste daily, while the MCD processes only 57 per cent of it. The remaining 5,800 tonnes, or about 43 per cent of the daily waste load, goes untreated and adds to the burden on the city’s saturated landfill sites.
Officials said the MCD has also identified land of its own for setting up waste-processing facilities, as part of its efforts to expand the city’s garbage-treatment capacity.
The corporation has been clearing accumulated garbage through bio-mining at its landfill sites. However, the continued disposal of fresh waste has made it difficult to prevent new waste mounds from forming, underscoring the need for additional processing capacity.
In June, the MCD approved five waste-processing projects worth around Rs 596 crore, with a combined capacity of 5,900 tonnes per day. The proposed facilities are at Bhalswa, Okhla, Singhola, Ghazipur and Narela-Bawana.
“The corporation has been carrying out bio-mining of legacy waste at Delhi’s landfill sites for the past several years. However, thousands of tonnes of fresh waste continue to be dumped every day, creating the risk of new garbage mountains. To address this challenge, we have prepared a long-term strategy,” an official said.
Delhi has four waste-to-energy plants with a combined capacity of 6,550 tonnes per day. However, a 200-tonne-per-day composting plant at Okhla has remained shut for years amid delays in its proposed upgrade to a bio-CNG facility.
(PTI News)
