Ghaziabad: NHAI dashes EDMC’s hopes of reducing the height of landfill sites
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Ghaziabad: NHAI dashes EDMC’s hopes of reducing the height of landfill sites

Per an agreement signed last year, NHAI was supposed to utilise domestic waste from Ghazipur’s landfill sites to construct a 22 km stretch of the Delhi-Meerut Highway. Now NHAI says it can lift waste from the sites for only 2 kms.  

Ghaziabad: NHAI dashes EDMC’s hopes of reducing the height of landfill sites

Nearly a month has gone by after the Ghazipur landfill collapse. However, there seem to be no definite solutions in sight in terms of reducing the height of landfill sites in East Delhi.  

Since there is no alternate ground to dump daily generated waste in East Delhi, EDMC was relying on the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to solve the problem. The clear expectation was that NHAI would utilise domestic waste for road construction. 

However, yesterday all hopes were dashed when NHAI officials announced that landfill waste shall be used to construct only a 2 km stretch. The two agencies had signed an agreement last year according to which waste dumps in Ghazipur shall be used for constructing a 22 km long stretch of the Delhi-Meerut highway.

After the incident of September 1, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the NHAI to start transporting the waste immediately from the landfill site. According to sources, NHAI is currently not in a position to use waste in its construction work. Incidentally as per the agreement, NHAI was to start lifting waste from the first week of November.

In an earlier report, City Spidey had stated that the two agencies were going to determine how they would share the cost in terms of waste segregation. Incidentally, only last week the Central Government has allocated an additional Rs 50 lakh for waste segregation at the site. This amount shall also be utilised for lifting waste.

NHAI’s current stand has put EDMC in a fix. Ruing the situation, Neema Bhagat, Mayor EDMC said, “When we signed the agreement last year we were informed that NHAI will use all segregated waste from Ghazipur that roughly weighs about 130 lakh tonnes for constructing a 22 km stretch. Now this has drastically come down to two kilometers. We had been assured that NHAI will help in reducing the height of waste landfill sites but now they have revised their plan.”