This is an archive article published on August 6, 2025
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Zakir Nagar garbage dump: MCD starts cleaning waste, councillor says plan to build garden or parking space on plot
For the last 15 days, from 10 pm to 12 am, residents have been sending out a recorded warning from a loudspeaker affixed to the first-floor balcony of a building located beside the plot
The cleaning comes a day after The Indian Express reported on Zakir Nagar's garbage dump that has come up on a piece of vacant land, which allegedly belonged to the Delhi Development Authority (Express Photo/Drishti Jain)
Around 1 pm on Tuesday, people staying near Chinar Apartments at Zakir Nagar in Southwest Delhi’s Okhla saw vehicles from Municipal Corporation of Delhi arrive to collect the layers of garbage that have piled up for decades.
Salman, a shopkeeper running a grocery store, said, “They picked garbage which fit into the vehicles, and made piles of waste they would carry later. I am happy that at least something is being done… Earlier, they used to just remove waste from the road and shove it onto the garbage dump.”
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The cleaning comes a day after The Indian Express reported on Zakir Nagar’s garbage dump that has come up on a piece of vacant land, which allegedly belonged to the Delhi Development Authority.
For the last 15 days, from 10 pm to 12 am, residents have been sending out a recorded warning from a loudspeaker affixed to the first-floor balcony of a building located beside the plot – “You are under CCTV surveillance. If caught throwing garbage, a complaint will be sent to the police and MCD”.
The speaker has been installed by a group of residents, frustrated by the daily dumping of garbage on the vacant plot in front of their homes. They have even resorted to standing guard to stop people from throwing trash.
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Until Tuesday, this plot was higher than the adjacent road due to layers of garbage — from broken furniture, torn mattresses, kitchen waste, to construction debris — that has accumulated over the past 20 years.
When contacted, Zakir Nagar Councillor Naziya Danish said, “We are trying to clean the garbage dump completely in the next two to three months. After that, we will start building a garden and a small parking lot on the plot for local residents.”
She, however, added that more vehicles are required to clean the garbage dump completely.
The cleaning comes a day after The Indian Express reported on Zakir Nagar's garbage dump that has come up on a piece of vacant land, which allegedly belonged to the Delhi Development Authority (Express Photo/Drishti Jain) 
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