Monitoring garbage disposal plans, actions of municipal bodies: Delhi LG tells SC

The Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi today told the Supreme Court that his office has been regularly reviewing and monitoring the garbage disposal plans and actions of the municipal bodies.

In an affidavit filed on his behalf, the LG said that he had directed all the three corporations to augment the capacities of waste-to-energy plants for scientific disposal of waste.

The note also pointed out that on the direction of the LG, a panel, comprising high-level experts from IITs, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has been constituted to manage 34 million metric tonnes of garbage at the three landfill sites.

The court had last week castigated the LG over his attitude of being "a superman" but doing nothing to get the "mountains of garbage" of the city cleared, with one of the dumping sites even reaching a height close to that of the Qutub Minar.

Urban Development Special Secretary S N Mishra, in an affidavit filed on LG's behalf, said "Immediately after assuming office on December 31, 2016, the LG visited the Bhalswa landfill site in January 2017, Okhla landfill site in February 2017, Ghazipur landfill site in later part of the year".

The affidavit also listed out the steps taken by the LG's office to manage the legacy mounds at the three landfill sites in the capital.

It said that the LG had directed to set up new waste-to-energy plants by South Delhi Municipal Corporation and North Delhi Municipal Corporations and also to enhance capacity of existing plants by all three Municipal Corporations of Delhi.

Regarding the Okhla landfill site in South Delhi, the LG said that the process of flattening of the steep slopes for their stabilisation, provision of drainage facility, leachate treatment and methane gas treatment amongst others has been started in February 2018.

"The flattened surface will be covered with construction and demolition waste. The balance slope profiling will take approximately six-nine months i.e. by May 2019. Thereafter the steps for final closure of the legacy site mound will be taken for execution of engineered closure. The execution activity for final closure is expected to take 18-24 months ie. by July 2020," the affidavit said.

It also said that municipal solid wastes dumped at Bhalswa has been reduced from 3100 MT to 2000 MT.

"Two new Waste-to-Energy plants with capacity of 3500 MT are being set up at Bhalswa by North Municipal Corporation and at Tehkhand by South Municipal corporation respectively. The capacity of existing Waste-to-Energy plant at Ghazipur is being enhanced by 1000 MT and at Okhla capacity is being enhanced...," it said.

It also said that all these projects will be completed in two years time and after completion of these three projects, it is expected that no untreated garbage will be dumped at the landfill sites.