Aafrin Kidwai 
Residential apartments near Vaishali Metro Station, Ghaziabad
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has filed its Action Taken Report (ATR) in compliance with a National Green Tribunal order dated May 20, 2020.
The matter relates to the management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste in Delhi. The NGT had directed that steps should be taken to ensure the increase of off-take and lifting of C&D recycling material.
In response, the North DMC has confirmed that they have stopped dumping the C&D
waste material at Bhalswa Landfill Site. The report by DPCC also stated that approximately 3900 tonnes per day (TPD) of C&D waste was generated in Delhi, which required a dedicated handling mechanism and disposal. Accordingly, separate collection and transport infrastructure of C&D waste had been set up under which the C&D waste was collected at ear-marked sites identified by the three municipal corporations (North Delhi Municipal Corporation, East Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation), New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Cantonment Board.
The waste was transported to the construction and demolition waste processing and recycling facilities in Delhi. After commissioning of one new Construction and Demolition Waste Processing Facility at Bakkarwala and expansion of the capacity of the C&D waste processing facility at Shastri Park from 500 TPD to 1000 TPD, there are now four operational Construction and Demolition Waste Processing plants in Delhi with a total capacity of 4150 TPD.
In these processing facilities, paver blocks, curb stones, bricks, sand, and soil of Bureau of Indian standards were being produced out of the C&D waste. These are used in the infrastructure projects and thus fresh requirements of natural resources had been minimized.
In May, the NGT had said that the capacity for processing construction and demolition (C&D) waste needed to be adequately enhanced within a specified timeline. Also, it was not desirable to allow the dumping of C&D waste at the Bhalswa landfill site, which had already crossed its capacity.
Picture Credit: Nikhil B/Wikimedia Commons, Residential area, Vaishali, Delhi, CC BY-SA 4.0
