Ghaziabad: NGT refuses to give GMC more time to shift waste dumping site

GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) is now in a fix over where to dump the 800 tonnes of waste that the city generates daily. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday refused to overturn its solid waste management committee’s earlier orders barring the civic body to dump garbage at the Pratap Vihar landfill site.
The GMC moved the green court in February this year after the NGT committee on solid waste management had on two previous occasions ordered the civic body not to dump waste at the Pratap Vihar landfill site and turned down its plea for more time to shift the landfill site to a designated location.
“In February this year, we had placed a request with NGT in which we had sought time from them to relocate the Pratap Vihar landfill site as the committee’s sudden decision to bar any dumping of waste at the site has created a civic mess,” Dinesh Chandra, municipal commissioner, told TOI. “On Friday, the NGT turned down our plea.”
With GMC’s final hope gone, it now banks on the Galand waste-to-energy plant which it is seeking as an alternative to the Pratap Vihar landfill site. But even that is taking lot of time. The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) which have been entrusted with the responsibility of making available 36 acres of land for the proposed plant in Galand has managed to lay hands on only 18 acres of land.
“We were assured by GDA in a recent meeting, called by district magistrate, that it will arrange for the remaining land in seven months. But so far it has not happened,” said AK Mishra, a GMC official. However, even if the required 36 acres of land is made available to GMC at this moment, it will take at least two years to develop the new plant.