NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has stopped dumping fresh municipal waste at the Okhla landfill after the Tehkhand waste-to-energy (WTE) plant became partially operational recently. The plant consumes around 1,200 tonnes of waste every day, allowing new municipal waste to be diverted from Okhla to Tehkhand.”Except for silt and construction & demolition waste dumped to level the area, we have completely stopped taking fresh waste there,” said a municipal officer. “The garbage generated in south Delhi is either being deposited at the Okhla WTE plant or at Tehkhand.” A portion of the wet waste amounting to 170 tonne per day is also being sent to the 57 composting units in various locations.Inaugurated on October 20, the Tehkhand plant uses up about 2,000 tonnes of waste daily. It can increase consumption by 20%, or 2,400 tonnes per day, to generate 25MW of electricity, enough to meet the needs of 25,000 households.”At the moment, there is only one boiler working at the plant,” an MCD official said. “We expect the second boiler to become operational by mid-January. After that, the majority of the municipal waste being dumped at the Ghazipur landfill too will be delivered to Tehkhand.”MCD is also working to redevelop the composting plant at Okhla into a CNG plant capable of consuming 300 tonnes of waste every day.”With these efforts to process all new fresh waste instead of dumping it at the Okhla landfill, we expect the work on flattening the height of the landfill to speed up,” said the official. “Our target is to flatten the Bhalswa and Okhla landfills by December next year and the Ghazipur one by March 2024,” said the official.At the Okhla plant, 1,950 tonnes of waste is being used up every day, of which 1,550-600 tonnes comes from MCD, 300 tonnes from NDMC and 100 tonnes from Delhi Cantonment. The city generates 11,000 tonnes of municipal waste every day. About 2,200 tonnes are sent to the Bhalswa landfill and 2,000 tonnes to Ghazipur. Besides, 6,500 tonnes go to the WTEs at Tehkhand, Okhla, Bawana (2,500 tonnes, 24MW) and Ghazipur (1,200 tonnes, 12MW). Of the remaining waste, 560 tonnes are processed at composting plants and 256 tonnes at material recovery facilities.”At the Ghazipur WTE plant, we also use the refuse-derived fuel created by the bio-mining of the legacy waste at the landfill. So plan to divert fresh waste from there to Tehkhand,” said the official.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhis-okhla-landfill-first-to-see-stop-on-fresh-dumping/articleshow/96409532.cms
