New air regime: How Municipal Corporation of Delhi plans to tackle construction and demolition waste

NEW DELHI: In its new policy on air pollution, the Commission for Air Quality Management has directed Delhi government’s urban department and the urban local bodies to register all construction and demolition projects involving over 500 square metres on their web portals by August 30.
Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials claimed to be verifying and monitoring construction sites and submitting details on a web portal developed by Delhi government. “CAQM’s norms basically apply to big constructions and public works. MCD needs to give a self-declaration about the arrangements for clearing construction and demolition waste on the state government portal,” said an MCD official.
The official added, “We were taking the help of the building department to get details of ongoing construction and the works department for other development projects in areas under our jurisdiction. But during the unification of the municipal corporations, the process slowed down. Now we will again take appropriate measures in a time-bound manner.”
On July 9, Delhi’s environment minister Gopal Rai announced a special campaign on self-registration of constructions on sites larger than 500sqm from July 15 to 30. The self-assessment portal was launched in October last year. The minister said, “As it is difficult to visit all construction and demolition sites, the project proponents have to compulsorily register on the portal and upload the self-declaration form on a fortnightly basis. Delhi Pollution Control Committee has been authorised to take action against defaulters.”
The CAQM policy instructs the local bodies to ensure segregation of C&D waste at the site and transport it to notified collection centres and processing plants. At present, the city generates 6,000-7,000 tonne of C&D waste per day. There are four C&D waste processing units capable of handling 4,150 TPD. Three others with a total capacity of 2,500 TPD are proposed at Ranikhera, Tehkhand and Libaspur by March 2023.
The new pollution policy stresses on expansion of waste recycling capabilities, material recovery centres and timely completion of ongoing and planned infrastructure works. “We have 152 material recovery centres dealing with 228 TPD of waste. About 275 TPD are processed at the local level,” said an MCD official.
Officials claimed that in the next two years, they will be able to incinerate at least 8,000 tonnes of 11,000 tonnes of municipal waste at new waste-to-energy plants. “We are in the process of calling for bids for the proposed WTE plant at Bawana, while the one at Tehkhand will become operational by September end,” added the official.