At Bhalswa, Okhla & Ghazipur: Every 3 months, drones to assess if Delhi’s landfills are getting shorter

The MCD has planned to deploy drones to survey the height of the three landfills — Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa — in the city every three months, senior officials said. “A report will be filed every three months on the height of landfills along with aerial photography and videos to ascertain the exact extent of steps that need to be taken to shorten it,” said a senior official of the MCD. He said the survey will also help the corporation monitor the utility of trommel machines placed at the sites.

To dispose of mounds of legacy waste at Bhalswa, 44 trommel machines have been processing 9,000 to 10,000 tonnes of waste daily. Till date, they have processed 25 lakh tonnes and flattened a 11-metre-high mound and another of 12 metres will be flattened shortly, as per an MCD report. Similarly, 26 trommel machines are working at Okhla landfill which processes 7,000 tonnes of waste every day and have processed 17 lakh tonnes of legacy waste till date. The MCD has managed to reduce the height of mounds by 15 to 30 metres at some locations.

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Ten trommel machines are working at Ghazipur landfill which process 4,000 tonnes of waste every day, and till date, MCD has processed 11 lakh tonnes of legacy waste and reduced the height of mounds at some locations by 12-18 metres at the site.

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The corporation has taken other measures as well, including subsidies on property tax to colonies engaged in waste segregation. It has also decided that inert material produced at the three landfills will be provided to citizens free of cost to be used for filling low-lying areas.

A senior official of the civic body said the MCD is working in a time-bound manner to process the mounds of garbage at the landfills. “The MCD has deployed trommel machines at landfill sites which are processing legacy waste by biomining. This leads to the proliferation of inert material,” he said.