Trucks’ queue may not end soon in Gurgaon's Bandhwari

GURGAON: MCG is set to miss the deadline fixed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) committee to stop daily waste dumping at Bandhwari by March 31.
A visit to the landfill by TOI on Friday showed trucks queued up at the site to dump daily waste. MCG officials also confirmed that they will continue to dump waste at the landfill in the absence of an alternative site.
The garbage truck drivers said they had no directions to refrain from dumping daily waste at Bandhwari. Processing of legacy waste was also under way on Friday.
Despite missing the deadline, MCG is unlikely to face any action. The committee in a meeting held on December 30 last year had revised the deadline from February 1, 2023 to March 31. It was extended after MCG officials explained the challenges they are facing on the ground.
“Daily waste dumping will continue at Bandhwari for now since we don’t have an alternative site ready for diverting it. A two-acre plot behind the landfill is being developed to accommodate the waste, but it is part of the existing landfill and not a separate site. We are left with no option but to wait for the development of the site in Faridabad’s Pali so that daily waste can be diverted there. We will send a status report to the NGT committee,” MCG joint commissioner (Swachh Bharat Mission) Naresh Kumar said.
“The NGT committee is aware of the practical problems on the ground. Both MCG and MCF face tremendous public resistance at the time of setting up a processing site at alternate locations. We know the situation on the ground, so NGT will now have to take a stance on it. The next meeting of the committee with the two corporations is scheduled for April,” a member of the panel said.
MCG officials said the existing capacity of treating legacy waste is 5,000 tonnes per day. The civic body, however, had earlier told the NGT panel that the daily legacy waste processing would be increased to 15,000 tonnes by March 31 and 20,000 tonnes by April end. “The unseasonal rain has become a hurdle for the private waste management firms to start work at the site,” an official said.