LG, Kejriwal to open Delhi’s first engineered landfill site

Delhi’s first engineered landfill site (e-SLF) will be made operational on Tuesday with the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and lieutenant governor VK Saxena opening the facility, a spokesperson for the Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi’s office said on Monday.
“All the preparations have been made, and the LG, CM Kejriwal and mayor Oberoi are likely to jointly inaugurate the site,” the official said.
Unlike the conventional dumpsites, an engineered landfill site ensures the disposal of waste in a technical and scientific manner, and has a provision for a leachate treatment plant to avoid leachate percolating into the ground. The Tehkhand project was approved in 2018 by the erstwhile South MCD, and the work was awarded in September 2021.
The stadium-shaped landfill is spread over a 23-acre site next to the oversaturated landfill in Okhla. It is covered with layers of geotextile barriers to prevent any contamination of the environment, and it will be used only to dispose off ashes and burnt material generated at the two waste-to-energy (WtE) plants at Okhla and Tehkhand, the officials said.
The development of the site was completed in December and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had granted the ‘consent to operate’ the engineered landfill to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on January 11, while asking the municipality to find ways for the ash to be reused, the officials added. Delhi’s four Waste to Energy (WtE) plants produce around 1200 tonnes ash per day (TPD)
The e-SLF at Tehkhand can hold around 960,000 tonnes of ash, with the excavated area having an average depth of 6.63 metres. The site has six different layers of lining at the bottom, laid down as per Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines. The site developed at a cost of ₹42.3 crore.
An MCD official said that the site is located right next to the Tehkhand waste to energy plant. “The ashes from the plant will be transferred directly to the landfill,” the official added.
Delhi has three conventional unplanned dumpsites at Okhla, Ghazipur and Bhalswa which are operating beyond their holding capacity, and a biomining project is being undertaken to clear them. The project has missed several deadlines and according to the revised projections by MCD, the Okhla landfill is likely to be cleared by 2024, Bhalswa by 2025 and Ghazipur dumpsite by 2026.
MCD is s planning to set up a second engineered landfill site in the city at Sultanpur Dabas in north-west Delhi to dispose of ash and burnt material from waste-to-energy plants. According the proposal, for utilisation of the land after the three dumpsites are cleared, an e-SLF will be set up at each of these sites.