India, May 20 -- Sanjeev Khirwar on Tuesday reviewed bio mining and waste-processing operations at the Okhla Landfill Site as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi races against time to reduce legacy waste ahead of the monsoon season. During the inspection, the Commissioner examined trommel machines engaged in biomining activities and directed officials to speed up remediation work at the site. He also inspected the Construction and Demolition waste facility, the engineered sanitary landfill and the compost plant at Okhla. Deputy Commissioner Shashwat Saurabh and Engineer-in-Chief P.C. Meena were present during the visit. Officials indicated that repeated revisions in landfill clearance targets have occurred due to limited processing capacity and delays in remediation operations. Also Read - Heatwave won't let Delhi chill, Orange alert on The timeline for flattening the Okhla dumpsite, initially fixed for December 2023, was later revised multiple times and now stands at July 2026. Civic officials said the arrival of the monsoon by late June could further slow biomining operations as wet waste becomes harder to process. Space constraints at the site have also limited the possibility of deploying additional machinery to accelerate waste removal. At present, nearly 18 lakh metric tonnes of waste remain at Okhla, where 18 trommel machines are operational and around 25 acres of land have been cleared so far. Across Delhi's three major legacy dumpsites, around 105 lakh metric tonnes of waste are still awaiting remediation, including approximately 67 lakh metric tonnes at Ghazipur and 26 lakh metric tonnes at Bhalswa. According to officials, around 4,000 to 5,000 metric tonnes of fresh waste continues to reach the landfill sites daily, alongside drain silt and ash generated by waste-to-energy plants, complicating the reclamation process. The MCD has approached the Centre to include Delhi's three landfill sites under the Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme launched under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 for scientific disposal of legacy waste.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.