Okhla landfill may suffer again as Ghazipur to send more waste

90,000 tonnes too much

- Paras Singh

NEW DELHI: Slow pace of legacy waste processing at the Ghazipur landfill site is likely to lead to waste spillover to other landfills in the city. Officials aware of the matter said the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) plans to divert around 90,000 tonnes of fresh garbage annually from the Ghazipur landfill to the Okhla landfill in southeast Delhi, citing "unstable slopes" and "space constraints" in the run-up to monsoon, as part of its biomining project to flatten Delhi's three landfills.

While biomining projects at three landfills—the third situated at Bhalswa—have been marred by delays due to continuing daily waste dumping, officials said that the Okhla landfill has clocked maximum progress and Ghazipur, has the least.

Biomining is the scientific process of excavation, treatment, segregation and gainful utilisation of legacy waste.

A senior MCD official, requesting not to be named, said: "Presently, there is no regular fresh waste dumping at the Okhla site as the fresh waste was consumed by commissioning the Tehkhand waste-to-energy (WtE) plant. However, approximately 90,000 tonnes per year of fresh waste will be diverted to the Okhla dump site from time to time as Ghazipur has unstable slope and space constraints during monsoon."