The Ridge Management Board (RMB) has asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to revise its proposal for a construction and demolition (C&D) waste processing facility at Tehkhand which, if built, will fall within the Ridge area and involve the felling of 672 trees.
According to the minutes of the RMB’s recent meeting, 3.64 hectares of land was allotted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to the MCD for construction of the facility in Tehkhand. Of this, 1.98 hectares fall within the Southern Ridge, which is a reserved forest.
The board has directed the MCD to “explore the possibility of realigning the project so as to exclude the area falling within the Southern Ridge”. The MCD has been asked to submit a revised proposal to the RMB.
The proposed facility will have the capacity to process 1,000 TPD (tonnes per day) of waste, and is one among three proposed processing units for construction and demolition waste slated to come up in the city, with the other two likely to be at Rani Khera and Libaspur. The proposal includes areas to stock the waste, besides a concrete production unit and manufacturing unit for tiles.
The city currently has four processing facilities for construction and demolition waste with a combined capacity of 4,150 TPD. According to data submitted by local bodies to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the city generates around 3,711 TPD of construction and demolition waste.
The RMB also considered a proposal for the disposal of inert material generated from the processing of waste at the three landfills in Delhi. A proposal to dump this waste in abandoned mining pits at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary was placed before the board last year by the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, was initially asked to submit a proposal on studying the “flora and fauna of the mined pits” and the possible effects of dumping the waste at the sanctuary. The forest department is now set to write to the institute for a revised proposal for a study on the biodiversity of the sanctuary and suggestions on the “sustainable use of these mining pits”, according to the minutes of the board’s meeting.
The Delhi chief secretary is the chairman of the RMB. The board was constituted to protect the ridge.
