Civic body plans to turn Bhalswa landfill into a green belt

The capital’s largest landfill site — Bhalswa in northwest Delhi — is set to be developed into a green belt.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has taken the decision based on a report shared by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) recently.

A North MCD official said DDA conducted the study on the lieutenant governor’s direction to find out the calorific value of garbage dumped here for years.

“The report said the garbage at the landfill lost its calorific value and can’t be used as fuel for generating power or road embankment. So the civic agency is considering the option of covering the place with soil and developing lawns. It would be used as a picnic spot,” said Praveen Gupta, commissioner, North MCD.

In the absence of alternative sites, the civic body has been dumping garbage at the landfill much beyond its capacity.

Every day, 3,000 metric tonnes of waste is dumped here — 2,000 from the North and 1,000 from the South Corporation.

But before initiating the process of landscaping the Bhalswa landfill, the corporation will need an alternative site to dump waste. So the North Corporation has simultaneously started working on a project to establish a wasteto-energy plant on 12 acres of land adjacent to the landfill to process newly generated garbage.