SOON, GHAZIPUR LANDFILL’S WASTE WILL HELP IN MAKING HIGHWAYS

NEW DELHI: In a move that could provide a solution for the disposal of Municipal solid waste sourced from Ghazipur landfill site, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are all set to use solid waste material for widening of NH-24 connecting Delhi to Meerut. The Corporation, while giving the go ahead on Wednesday, said that nearly 70 per cent waste of around 14 million metric tonne of dumped waste will be used for road constructions which will be the first of its kind in the country.

The move comes after a study was conducted by the CSIR — Central Road Research Institute (CRRI). The institute submitted its report to NHAI a couple of months back and said that the Municipal solid waste contains about 65 to 70 per cent of soil components which can be used in embankment construction after segregation from the Municipal solid waste. Following which, the matter was placed before the Standing Committee for approval.

“NHAI and Urban Development Ministry had sought permission for utilisation of MSW for highway construction programme on NH-24 earlier. This will be in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directions for use of waste in a productive way hence we took it in a same spirit. As the proposal got passed, the Corporation has been empowered to sign an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and once the MOU is inked, the highway authority will be allowed to use the material for the purpose,” said Jitender Chaudhary, Chairman Standing Committee.

The EDMC officials informed that the landfill site, spread over 30-acre land, got saturated earlier in 2004 but dumping of garbage is still taking place. Ignoring the actual capacity of the site, the EDMC dumps nearly 2,500 metric tonne garbage daily. Since the site has stored enormous volume of garbage, its disposal and reclamation of land has become a hard nut to crack.

“As the EDMC area generates thousands of metric tonne waste daily, its proper disposal has been a challenging task. If things go well, the NHAI will set up a plant near the site and will segregate the solid waste. Through segregation, nearly 70 per cent solid waste will be extracted as road filler while the remaining will be used as raw material for wasteto-energy plants. Since the proposal has been made by the NHAI, entire cost for setting up the plant and transportation of the produced material will be borne by the NHAI itself,” said Mohanjeet Singh, Commissioner EDMC.