Gurgaon: In a bid to tackle the city’s construction and demolition (C&D) waste dumping problem, MCG on Friday slashed the doorstep collection rate for small-scale and non-bulk C&D waste producers, including residents, to Rs 50 per tonne and launched a dedicated portal for requesting pickups.MCG House in its meeting chaired by Mayor Raj Rani Malhotra on Friday passed the proposal to reduce the C&D waste collection charge for non-bulk waste from Rs 360 per tonne to Rs 50 per tonne.The move comes against the backdrop of widespread complaints about C&D waste being illegally dumped on roads and other unauthorised locations despite residents paying contractors for collection. The revised rate represents a steep reduction from the earlier charges. Unsegregated C&D waste collection was previously priced at Rs 720 per tonne, while segregated waste attracted a charge of Rs 360 per tonne. Those transporting waste directly to the Basai facility were charged Rs 205 per tonne. MCG has now decided to collect only Rs 50 per tonne from residents and other small-scale C&D waste producers, while bearing the balance amount.Additional Commissioner Yash Jaluka in the House meeting said that the corporation believed that reducing the fee for non-bulk C&D waste would encourage people to take their debris to authorised disposal locations and help effectively control the problem of C&D waste being dumped indiscriminately across the city. To avail of this facility, information will have to be submitted through MCG’s C&D Waste Management Portal: https://mcg-sms.austere.biz/cd-wasteAfter making the payment of the prescribed fee, users will have to generate a challan. However, the fee for bulk waste generators will remain unchanged at Rs 360 per tonne.“The MCG’s strategy is straightforward, which is to make authorised disposal dramatically cheaper for residents while bringing the collection process onto a formal platform, thereby reducing the incentive and opportunity for contractors to dump waste illegally,” said Additional Commissioner Yash Jaluka in the MCG House meeting.In the meeting, Jaluka said that the civic body will also rope in local transporters for the C&D waste pickup. Such transporters will register themselves on the portal. A resident seeking this facility would be able to access the list of registered transporters too on the portal for their C&D waste pickup.“The Basai plant, which is the only processing facility MCG currently has, has been asked to address the pickup requests within 48 hours. However, the validity of the challan generated after a resident requests pickup on the portal is 24 hours,” added the additional commissioner.Over the last one year, 7.9 lakh metric tonnes of C&D waste was dumped at the Basai plant, out of which 3.9 lakh MT was from the bulk C&D waste producers and the remaining 4 lakh MT of construction waste dumped at the plant came from non-bulk waste producers.This, MCG officials said, will also help the civic body in addressing the issues of dust pollution and take action as per its clean air plan submitted to CAQM. For govt contractors too, the rate for C&D waste collection will be Rs 360 per tonne and this cost will be borne by MCG and it will be introduced in the tender documents too to ensure effective disposal of construction waste. It was also informed in the meeting that MCG has developed 12 C&D waste collection points in the city and some more are underway.But the success of the move will ultimately depend on enforcement and execution. The Basai plant is currently authorised only to collect and process 300 MT of C&D waste daily. On this, MCG Commissioner Pradeep Dahiya said that the proposals to enhance this quantity have already been sent to the urban local bodies (ULB) department and approval is awaited.
