North corporation plans to turn Delhi’s Bhalswa landfill into a green belt

The capital’s largest landfill site -- Bhalswa in northwest Delhi-- is finally 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 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 electricity or for embankment of roads. So the civic agency is considering the option of covering the place with soil and developing integrated lawns. It would be used as a picnic spot in future,” said Praveen Gupta, commissioner, North MCD.

In the absence of alternative sites, the civic body has been dumping garbage at the Bhalswa landfill though it crossing its capacity years ago.

Every day, 3,000 metric tonnes of waste is dumped here — 2,000 from the North and 1000 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 waste to energy plant on 12 acres of land adjacent to the landfill to process newly generated garbage.

“We will need buyers for the power generated at the waste-energy plant and a letter has already been written to the department of power, Delhi government in this regard. Also, we will need space to dump the residue generated from the plant,” said senior North Corporation official

The civic agency is talking to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee, Azadpur, for transferring eight acres of land near the landfill.

The land belongs to the committee and can be used for composting green waste in the future.

Last year, the North DMC had shared a plan for reclaiming the landfill site. It had appointed a consultant to evaluate the cost and time needed to reclaim the 40 acres of land.

“The consultant informed that the process will cost R 900 crore and years in complete reclamation. We don’t have this much time and money to invest in the project,” said senior North MCD official.

Commissioned in 1993, the Bhalswa landfill site became functional in 1994. But due to lack of any garbage management laws, the site turned into a mountain of garbage.

Though the landfill ran out of space in 2007, the municipality continues to dump trash here in the absence of space elsewhere.