Ludhiana: Ending a nearly four-year delay, chief minister Bhagwant Mann will lay the foundation stone for a second compressed biogas (CBG) plant at the Haibowal Dairy Complex on Friday.The project has a completion timeline of 16 months and is expected to become operational by December next year. Civic officials were active on Thursday making preparations for the event, which included a special cleanliness drive in the complex that local farmers noted was a rare departure from routine neglect.The expansion aims to resolve a severe environmental bottleneck at Haibowal, where over 35,000 cattle generate roughly 400 metric tonnes per day (MTPD) of dung. The existing plant can process only 220 MTPD, leaving nearly 200 tonnes of waste unprocessed daily. This surplus frequently chokes the local sewer system and gets dumped into the Buddha Dariya, aggravating water pollution.In contrast, the situation at the Tajpur Road Dairy Complex remains stagnant. Housing 14,000 animals, the complex generates 200 MTPD of cattle dung but lacks a single processing facility.Despite an initial MoU signed between PEDA and the municipal corporation in 2014 and a 350-MTP plant proposal pending for three years, no alternative processing infrastructure has been established for Tajpur Road beyond routine lifting.The decades-long battle over dairy wasteThe crisis of untreated cattle dung in Ludhiana’s twin dairy complexes—Haibowal and Tajpur Road—stems from urban planning decisions made half a century ago. Established in the late 1970s and early 1980s under the Ludhiana Improvement Trust, these complexes were carved out on the city’s outskirts to relocate dairy operations from congested residential areas. However, as the industrial hub expanded, rapid urban sprawl encircled the complexes, while the cattle population exploded beyond initial projections. Crucial waste management infrastructure failed to keep pace with this growth, turning both sites into severe environmental bottlenecks for the city’s civic health.The Budha Dariya contamination pipelineFor decades, the dumping of untreated dairy waste has remained the primary pollutant destroying the Budha Dariya—a natural stream that feeds into the Satluj and ultimately impacts drinking water quality across downstream districts. Raw cow dung contains high levels of organic matter, nitrates, and biological oxygen demand (BOD) loads. When washed directly into the stream through storm channels and overflowing municipal sewers, it severely depletes oxygen levels in the water, smothering aquatic life. Beyond ecological damage, the constant influx of solid sludge creates heavy siltation, decreasing the riverbed’s capacity and triggering chronic waterlogging in adjacent low-lying colonies during the monsoon season.Stalled clean-up directives & regulatory actionThe chronic failure to process dairy waste has drawn continuous ire from judicial and regulatory authorities over the years. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has repeatedly summoned municipal officials, issued stringent deadlines, and levied heavy environmental compensation fines on local authorities for failing to stop dairy effluent discharge. In response, municipal bodies floated multiple remediation strategies—including installing solid-liquid separation units, setting up effluent treatment plants (ETPs), and even threatening to shift non-compliant dairies outside city limits. However, due to political resistance from dairy associations, administrative inertia, and funding delays, long-term technical interventions like large-scale compressed biogas plants have experienced repeated setbacks, leaving regional water bodies vulnerable to persistent pollution.
