Govt to hire 2 cos to process 14L tonne of waste in Bandhwari

Gurgaon: After waste treatment stopped over two months back, the Haryana govt has selected two agencies to process 14 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste at Bandhwari landfill. The Rs 90.1 crore project assigns 9 lakh metric tonnes to one agency at Rs 645 per tonne and 5 lakh metric tonnes to another at Rs 642 per tonne.
Operations are expected to begin within a month following approval from the High-Powered Purchase Committee (HPPC). Officials said they aim to finish the processing in four months from the beginning of the work.
"The agencies require a minimum of 15 days to organise their resources before starting work. Given our four-month timeline to process the legacy waste, we have instructed all participating agencies to adhere strictly to this schedule to ensure complete treatment of all legacy waste," MCG commissioner Ashok Kumar Garg told TOI.
Waste treatment at Bandhwari stopped two months back as the contract with the agencies deployed for the duty ended.
Around 2,200 tonnes of waste from Gurgaon and Faridabad are dumped daily at the Bandhwari landfill.
A Dec 16 affidavit that MCG submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) stated that around 8.8 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste — which was supposed to be cleared by Dec 31 last year — remained untreated.
The civic body's action plan, submitted on Dec 16, mentioned that fresh waste processing would continue at Bandhwari until alternative solutions, including a torrefied charcoal plant, were implemented. When fresh waste is not processed for 30 days, it is classified as legacy waste.
The charcoal plant project is scheduled for commissioning by Dec 16 next year.
Hearing petitions filed on Dec 17 by a resident, Poonam Yadav, and environmentalist Vivek Kamboj, an NGT bench — headed by chairperson Prakash Shrivastava and expert member A Senthil Vel — identified major deficiencies in MCG's handling of legacy waste at Bandhwari landfill.
"Progress has been very slow in the remediation of legacy waste and setting up waste processing facilities," the tribunal observed in its Dec 17 order.
NGT said MCG's affidavit lacked crucial information, including analytical evidence confirming the safety of bio-soil distributed among farmers and that used in low-lying areas. The bio-soil, extracted from the area where legacy waste was removed, was handed out to farmers, which they could use for levelling.
The tribunal also highlighted the absence of detailed information regarding quantities of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) that were transported to cement plants and waste-to-energy facilities.
Additionally, MCG failed to provide specifics about expenditure on waste remediation and the extent of land freed after removing trash.