MC to set up 4 new waste processing plants to end landfill crisis, says Mayor

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is set to establish four new municipal solid waste (MSW) processing facilities across the city as part of its mission to eliminate Delhi’s massive landfill sites and ensure 100 per cent scientific waste disposal, Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh announced on Tuesday.

The new facilities, to be developed at Bhalswa (1,800 TPD), Singhola (700 TPD), Okhla (1,400 TPD) and Narela–Bawana (1,200 TPD), will collectively process 5,100 tonnes of waste per day (TPD). The total cost for setting up these plants is estimated at Rs 361.42 crore. According to the mayor, tenders have already been invited and the plants are expected to become operational within six months.

“These new facilities will ensure no fresh waste is dumped at the existing landfill sites,” the Mayor said, adding that the MCD is working “on a war footing” to remediate and eliminate the city’s three dumpsites — Bhalswa, Ghazipur, and Okhla. “The goal is to make Delhi clean, healthy, and pollution-free within the stipulated timeframe,” he said.

Currently, Delhi generates about 11,500 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste per day. The MCD operates four waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, at Narela-Bawana (1,300 TPD), Okhla (1,550 TPD), Tehkhand (2,000 TPD) and Ghazipur (1,300 TPD), with a combined processing capacity of 6,550 TPD. Despite these efforts, nearly 4,700 tonnes of waste continue to be dumped daily at the city’s three major landfill sites.

Since 2019, the MCD has been carrying out biomining of legacy waste to reclaim land at the dumpsites. So far, 25 acres have been reclaimed at Bhalswa and 10 acres at Okhla, while 7.2 acres have been cleared at Singhola.

An additional 10 acres of land is available at the Integrated MSW Processing Facility in Narela-Bawana for future development.

Further, Mayor Singh said that senior MCD officials, including the Chairman of the Standing Committee, the Leader of the House and the Deputy Mayor, were conducting regular inspections of landfill sites to monitor progress. Councillors and sanitation teams are also surveying garbage-vulnerable points in their respective wards to strengthen waste management at the local level.