Delhi will get its fourth construction and demolition (C&D) waste plant in November. After the recent spotlight on the capital’s inability to process at least 60% of its C&D waste, which is contributing majorly to dust pollution, South Delhi Municipal Corporation has expedited its work on its plant coming up at Bakkarwala.
“We are racing against time, but are hopeful that the plant will be functional by next month,” a senior engineering department official who is overseeing the project told TOI.
The Bakkarwala plant will have the capacity to process over 500 metric tonnes of debris coming in from construction sites across Delhi every day. During a recent review meeting with PMO on air pollution in Delhi-NCR, SDMC had claimed that another 1,000 TPD plant would come up at Maidangarhi.
Currently, Delhi has the capacity to process 2,650 MT of debris a day through its three plants located at Burari (2,000 TPD), Shastri Park (500 TPD) and Rani Khera (150 MT). The Rani Khera facility is run by DMRC.
Collectively, these plants can process only about 40% of the C&D waste, turning them into usable items, such as interlocking footpath tiles, recycled sand, stones and bricks. During the review meeting, the issue of non-lifting of end products (tiles, bricks, etc) had also come up.
Though mandated by the Construction and Demolition Waste Rules, 2016, to use at least 20% of the recycled items, even government firms are not purchasing them.
The civic bodies say about 6 lakh tonnes of end products are lying at the existing facilities, along with 10 lakh tonnes of unprocessed debris. Earlier this year, IL&FS, which runs the Burari facility, had reported that it incurred a loss of Rs 11.8 crore in its operation till March 2018.
“Only 2 lakh tonnes of end products have been lifted during this financial year,” a north corporation official said. “NHAI is being pursued to use these materials in its projects outside Delhi. Their targeted use is 10 lakh MT,” the official said.
The three civic bodies have also been directed to make an inventory of the C&D waste dumped on government, DDA and municipal land. “Steps are to be taken to prevent any future dumping on these government-owned plots,” the official said. The capital generates around 6,850 TPD of construction debris.
