Ball set rolling to clear up landfills
NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has hired nine firms from different parts of the country to clear nearly 280 lakh metric tonnes of waste and reclaim land at landfill sites-bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla-from October 1.
The firms have been asked to complete the work in a year, a north corporation official said.
Some of the firms have helped the Indore Municipal Corporation diminish the Devguradia landfill in the city and are also working on Ahmedabad’s Pirana landfill project. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has cited the two projects as “ideal models to remediate landfills” and recommended them for Delhi.
The north corporation, the nodal agency for remediation of landfill sites in Delhi, awarded the tender for biomining to these nine waste management firms on Friday. Biomining involves excavation and segregation of waste into fractions such as stones, bricks, plastics, metals, etc.
The firms have been asked to deploy at least two trommel machines (large cylindrical sieves), used to segregate waste, and one supervisor and operator, besides eight labourers.
Each trommel will process about 500 metric tonnes of waste a day in two shifts, helping the city do away with 2.7 lakh metric tonnes of waste per month. The firms will be paid Rs. 6.29 lakh per machine per month.
Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla together hold about 280 lakh metric tonnes of waste as old as from the year 1984. It spreads over a cumulative area of 152 acres.
Senior officials of the north corporation said that while the NGT has asked them to finish the project in a year’s time, it could take 2-2.5 years actually.
“We will keep on adding trommel machines as we go on clearing land on the Bhalswa site. Civil work to install the trommels has started and the machines are on their way,” Varsha Joshi, commissioner, north corporation, said. The civic body had floated the tender for remediation of the three landfills on September 1.
In July 17 this year, the NGT asked the corporations to chuck plans to ‘cap’ (green cover) the three landfills and instead go for biomining and bioremediation.
It asked the three corporations, the New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Cantonment Board and the Delhi government to deposit ₹250 crore in an escrow account for the purpose. It said biomining should start at the three landfills by October 1.
Jagdish Modani, owner of one of the firms awarded the job, said, “While the landfills elsewhere (in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat where his firm worked) had lesser amount of garbage, lower height and more fallow land around for easier processing,, Delhi will be a challenge.” “We feel our workers will have to work very carefully at Ghazipur as the landfill had collapsed once before,” he said.
Asad Warsi, an expert who worked on the Indore landfill, and has now been appointed by NGT to help Delhi’s municipalities, said, “Biomining is the most appropriate, eco-friendly way to remediate old landfills. We hope that just as the 13 lakh metric tonnes of waste at Devguradia was done away with, Delhi’s mountains of garbage will be disposed of soon.”