Mounds of C&D waste pile up on vacant plots, roadsides in Gurugram
Gurugram has been facing serious civic problems regarding poor waste management for many years.
Locals allege that the Municipal Corporation had failed to manage the solid waste — both garbage and construction and demolition (C&D) waste. Civic body officials have allegedly not put a good waste management system in place to fix the issue.
At least 12-lakh MT of solid waste has got accumulated on the Bandhwari landfill site over the past one decade, with hardly any concrete efforts having been made for its disposal.
Apart from this, 6-lakh MT of C&D waste has piled-up on the roadsides and in the vacant plots across the city, awaiting to be lifted and transported to the processing plant for the past couple of years.
Last week, a group of newly elected Councillors met MCG Commissioner Ashok Kumar Garg, demanding the setting up of zone-specific C&D waste processing facilities in the city. They apprised him of the huge quantities of C&D waste being thrown along the roadsides and in vacant plots.
Councillors Anoop Singh, Rakesh Yadav and others said the problem of C&D waste had worsened due to widespread construction works going on in the real estate and infrastructure development sectors.
They alleged the owners of private tractor-trolleys engaged in illegal transport business pick-up waste from construction and demolition sites and throw it at undesignated places creating nuisance and causing problems to the locals.
Prakash Lamba, president of the Sector 21 RWA, demanded that the MC must draft a legal framework for all construction agencies to furnish mandatory disclosure of their estimated construction waste so that it could be ascertained properly for disposal.
The manager of C&D waste management plant located at Basai village, Vinod Kumar, told The Tribune that they collected at least 300 MT of waste daily from within 15-km radius of the plant as per an agreement with the civic body and about 200 MT daily directly from construction and demolition sites. “We process 15,000 MT of C&D waste per month,” he said.
He said once collected and transported to the processing plant, the C&D waste was washed, cleaned, processed and segregated with the help of a conveyor. The materials were segregated into 20 mm, 12 mm, 10 mm, 6 mm particulates and material-sand was manufactured by crushing them.
The aggregates were reused for plastering purposes. Coarse aggregates were reused in concrete work, he said. The bricks and steel rods from construction and demolition waste were sold. “We also make inter-locking tiles and blocks,” Vinod Kumar said while adding that the leftover of 1 per cent of refuse derived fuel (RDF) was sold to the cement companies.
The Executive Engineer (Swacch Bharat Mission) of the MCG, Nijesh Manderna, said, “We have floated tenders to hire a private agency for the lifting and transportation of C&D waste. They will be opened on coming May 9 and hopefully the work order will be issued immediately after rate negotiations,” he said.
After the mobilisation period of another 10 days, the lifting and transportation of C&D waste would begin by May 20, he said, adding, “Once this work begins, we will pick-up all the 6-lakh MT of C&D waste lying along the roadsides and in the vacant plots within 100 days.”
Delhi