Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said his government is hopeful of clearing the Okhla landfill site by December, ahead of the target of May 2024.
He said garbage started pilling up at the landfill 26 years ago and now 40 lakh metric tonnes of garbage is left at the site.
"Since 2019, the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) has been removing waste from here, and around 25 lakh metric tonnes of waste has been processed, but there is still around 40 lakh metric tonnes of waste lying here at the time," the chief minister, who visited the landfill site, said.
Kejriwal inspected the ongoing works at the site and said the Delhi government and the MCD are hopeful of clearing the landfill by December, ahead of its target of May next year, according to a statement.
Urban Development Minister Kailash Gahlot, MCD Mayor Shelly Oberoi and Deputy Mayor Aaley Iqbal were also present for the inspection of the site.
Clearing the three landfill sites at Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalaswa in a time-bound manner was among the "10 guarantees" promised by the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the December MCD polls, and after being elected mayor last month, Oberoi had said her team will inspect all the sites.
In the run-up to the polls, Kejriwal had said Delhi's garbage landfill sites would be cleared and the city would be beautified, while his party's had asserted new technologies would be adopted, experts roped in and more machines deployed to clear the sites of garbage.
"Till March 1, 2023, 5.10 lakh metric tonnes of garbage has been removed and disposed. Target has been given to completely clean the litter by May 2024. The agency has been given a separate target of three months each to clear the garbage from the Okhla landfill site," the statement said.
The chief minister said construction and demolition waste plants and biomethonation plants will be set up after cleaning the garbage from the Okhla site.
"Our capacity to dispose of waste at the moment is around 4,500 tonnes. For a while now, we have been wanting to increase this capacity and from April 1, the Delhi government will be increasing its capacity to dispose of waste to 10,000 metric tonnes," he said.
"The Delhi government is also hopeful that it will be able to dispose of 15,000 metric tonnes of waste by June 1. If the government manages to achieve this target, then hopefully by December this year or January next year, the mountain of waste here at Okhla landfill site will be disposed of. This will be a huge relief to those who live close to this site," the statement quoted Kejriwal as saying.
The area of the Sanitary Landfill (SLF) is about 63 acres and garbage has been coming here since 1996. Following the instructions of the National Green Tribunal, in 2019, the initiative to remove the garbage by biomining was started.
-With PTI Input
