Breather for Bandhwari soon? Land earmarked in Fbd for new waste plant

Gurgaon: The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) has taken over a land parcel in Sotai village to set up a landfill where fresh waste will be dumped.
The site, according to officials, will be developed after floating tenders and assigning the project to a private firm for dumping and processing fresh waste. The committee set up by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the civic body to take possession of the site and float tenders by January 10. The new site will take the burden of around 1,000 tonnes of waste transported daily from Faridabad off Bandhwari landfill.
No fresh waste will be transported to the new landfill from Gurgaon since it is not feasible, an MCG official said, adding that it, however, will substantially reduce the burden on Bandhwari and help expedite treatment of legacy waste at the site.
While MCF officials said the site in Sotai will be measured in the coming days, sources claimed on Wednesday that it is over 28 acres of land divided into three chunks. The land was earlier given to a brick kiln on lease, which is now cancelled so that it can be utilised for fresh waste processing.
“We have taken possession of the land according to the guidelines of the NGT committee. We are making estimates of the boundary wall of the site and waste processing unit which will be installed at the site. The actual area of land under our possession will be determined after the patwari along with our officials visit the site,” said Padam Bhushan, executive engineer, MCF.
“The takeover of the site comes after the directions of the NGT committee, which had directed both Gurgaon and Faridabad corporations to stop fresh waste dumping at Bandhwari. We are processing 4,000 tonnes of waste every day at Bandhwari, but we still have around 2,000 tonnes of waste coming in every day. So, the pace of legacy waste processing will automatically expedite if the amount of fresh waste coming to Bandhwari is reduced,” said Naresh Kumar, MCG joint commissioner
The panel in its last meeting held on December 30 last year had directed both MCG and MCF that 70% of fresh waste generated in the city and 50% generated in Faridabad would not be sent to Bandhwari from February 15, 2023. The civic bodies were also told to ensure that fresh waste dumping should be stopped after March 31.
While Faridabad has identified the site, Gurgaon is relying on two land parcels in Kherki Majra which can process around 500 tonnes of fresh waste every day and a plot in Balola village for which environmental clearance has been sought by Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG).
A survey of the land in Balola will have to be carried out to identify plantations done in the area.