Delhi government mulls land for waste plant

New Delhi: The Delhi government is considering a proposal to provide land to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) to set up a waste to energy plant at Tikri Khampur, an official said. The Development Department of the Delhi government has a land at Tikri Khampur where a vegetable wholesale market is proposed to be developed.

The department is considering to hand over a portion of that land to the municipal corporation where a waste to energy plant can be built, a senior government official said. According to sources, a meeting was called by development minister Gopal Rai in the matter.

If the proposal is accepted and the land is provided to the civic body, the waste to energy plant will also be used to treat garbage from the vegetable wholesale market.

Areas under the three municipal corporations in Delhi generate around 10,000 MT of garbage daily that is dumped on three landfill sites that have already crossed their permissible heights.

On September 1, a day after torrential rains lashed Delhi, a portion of the waste dump in Ghazipur, estimated to be as high as a 15-storey building, slumped over a car and three two-wheelers, pushing the vehicles off the road and into a canal. Two persons were killed in the incident. 

Following the incident, the Delhi lieutenant-governor’s office said garbage dumping in east Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill site has been banned with immediate effect and it is likely to be cleared within two years.