MCs miss deadline to stop waste disposal at Bandhwari site again

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram,March 31

A state committee, constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), had fixed March 31 as the deadline to shift garbage disposal from the site. However, both Gurugram and Faridabad civic bodies have failed to develop any new site.

With no alternative site ready, the Gurugram Municipal Corporation (MCG), in a letter to the NGT, has asked to extend the deadline till April 30. Both Faridabad Municipal Corporation (MCF) and the MCG had proposed to set up the waste segregation and processing plant at Pali village in Faridabad. But the proposal has been scrapped after the local residents carried out several protests opposing the plant. They had even gheraoed the residence of Union Minister of State for Power and Heavy Industries KP Gurjar.

900 TONNES DUMPED EVERY DAY

• On December 2022, the NGT constituted a state committee to resolve the issue of excess legacy waste at Bandhwari site.
• The landfill site is spread over 28.5 acres. At present, the landfill has around 2.5 million tonnes of waste.
• Every day, Gurugram and Faridabad MCs dump about 100 tonnes and 800 tonnes of garbage, respectively, at the site.

A senior official said, “Even the land in Pali wasn’t developed for waste disposal. We have planned to construct a facility on 2 acres that has been vacated after treating legacy waste at Bandhwari. We will set up machinery within 15 days. Fresh waste will be treated here daily so that garbage doesn’t accumulate.”

The MCG has also explored fresh sites at Begumpur Khatola, Daultabad and Kherki Majra village. The capacity of the five material recovery facilities, where segregated recyclable material was being processed, would be increased by next month, an official said.

“We will start treatment of fresh waste on the daily basis in future. We have started decentralised treatment and will treat more waste through this process. We have also stepped up the treatment of legacy waste at Bandhwari landfill,” MCG Commissioner PC Meena said.

Meanwhile, the MCF authorities are preparing a new proposal of setting up smaller waste treatment plants in all the six Assembly segments of Faridabad. The project will cost around Rs 20 crore. The civic body authorities claimed that they would set up the sites in the minimum possible time period. Till then, the civic body had sought permission from the NGT for disposing of waste at Bandhwari landfill, an official of the MCF said. BK Kardam, Chief Engineer of the MCF, said the work on the new proposal was going on and it would be implemented soon.

On December 2022, the NGT constituted a state committee to resolve the issue of excess legacy waste at the Bandhwari site. The landfill site is spread over 28.5 acres. At present, the landfill has around 2.5 million tonnes of waste. Every day, MCG and MCF dump about 100 and 800 tonnes of garbage, respectively, at the Bandhwari landfill site.