New Delhi: Delhi’s much-promised dream of getting rid of its three landfill sites remains elusive.Even as MCD races against time to clear legacy waste, the target for flattening the Bhalswa landfill has been pushed back yet again — for the seventh time. After missing the Dec 2026 target, the civic body on Nov 8 set April 2027 as the new deadline.On Thursday, mayor Pravesh Wahi and MCD commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar visited the site to review the progress of biomining work under Phase III. The work had been suspended last month after the agency engaged for Phase II completed its target. The new agency took time to set up machinery and begin operations, resulting in a disruption in the biomining process, said officials.The Bhalswa landfill was adopted by Union housing and urban affairs minister ML Khattar in Sept 2025. He had assured it would be flattened within a year. However, 21 lakh metric tonnes of waste remains at the site.Wahi said over 1 crore metric tonnes of legacy waste had been cleared but the remaining will take time to be processed, adding, “Officials have been instructed to accelerate the pace of the waste disposal process.”Progress reports on waste disposal will be reviewed daily, Wahi said, adding, “Around 30% of land at Bhalswa and 60% at Okhla have been reclaimed through legacy waste disposal.”Wahi said disposal of fresh waste had also been accelerated. The number of machines deployed will be increased and a state-of-the-art machine, ‘Vajra’, was being installed for the purpose, he added.Before the latest timeline revision, MCD had in mid-Oct extended the deadline to Feb 2027. Officials attributed the delay to several reasons, including a change of contractor responsible for processing and removing the legacy waste. The previous contractor had been assigned the task of removing 30 lakh metric tonnes. Following the completion of phase II, MCD floated a fresh tender and another agency took over at revised rates, resulting in a gap in operations, said officials. “Factors like rain and dumping of fresh waste also led to delay,” said an official.Clearing of the Okhla landfill has also seen repeated extensions. MCD revised its deadline in May, shifting it to Oct, marking the fifth extension since biomining began at the site in 2019. It then pushed the target to Dec 2026, and then Jan 2027.Meanwhile, dumping of fresh waste at all three landfills remains a major challenge. About 3,000-3,500 metric tonnes land at each site daily, adding to the existing waste burden.“MCD is aggressively working on establishing five fresh waste processing plants so that fresh dumping can be stopped,” said the official.Together, the five plants will have a processing capacity of 5,900 metric tonnes per day. These include facilities at Bhalswa (1,800 tonnes per day), Okhla (1,400 TPD), Narela-Bawana (1,200 TPD), Ghazipur (800 TPD) and Singhola (700 TPD). The Singhola plant will also process drain silt.An MCD official said construction of the fresh waste processing plants at Okhla and Singhola had begun, with a target to complete the work by Nov-end.
