New waste-to-energy plant at Bhalswa.

A waste-to-energy plant will be set up at the Bhalswa landfill that has been overflowing with garbage for years, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation announced recently.

The landfill, which is spread over 40 acres of land in north-west Delhi, gets about 2,800 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste every day. Due to lack of alternate sites, the civic body has been dumping garbage at the Bhalswa landfill despite it crossing its intended capacity years ago.

As a result, methane gas that is emitted from the waste catches fire leading to plumes of smoke rising from the mountain of trash.

Recently, north Delhi Mayor Dr. Sanjeev Nayyar said that a new waste-to-energy plant would be installed at the landfill in order to increase the corporation’s waste processing capacity.

This will be the corporation’s second such plant, with the first one in Narela-Bawana having been installed this year.

“Improving sanitation and handling of waste as per the Swachh Bharat Mission is our top priority. In two months, we should have the details of the Bhalswa project ready and the Narela-Bawana plant will begin operations in November,” said Dr. Nayyar.

The Narela-Bawana plant is currently running trials and when fully commissioned, it will use up to 1,000 MT of waste every day to produce power, said Dr. Nayyar.

The Bhalswa plant would process up to 94 per cent of the accumulated waste, while the remaining six per cent would be used to make bricks. The Mayor said that technical assistance would be sought from Austria, which he had visited recently.

Dr. Nayyar said the corporation had been given Rs.46 crore in the past year under the Swachh Bharat Mission, and Rs.36.9 crore of that was for solid waste, which is how the plant would be funded.

THE HINDU