Gurgaon: Bandhwari landfill’s legacy-waste cleanup fell 56.9% short of its target by July-end, with only 3.2 lakh metric tonnes (MT) processed against the 7.5 lakh MT that was supposed to be cleared between March and July, according to MCG’s clean air action plan submitted to Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).The action plan had fixed a monthly target of 1.5 lakh MT from March onwards, but the recorded achievement by July remained less than half of what was expected.A senior MCG official said the civic body has revised its monthly targets because rains hampered the process. “Moreover, there is space constraint at the site due to fresh waste dumping happening at the site simultaneously. We have already finalised a site to divert our fresh waste. Once the site is operational, we will achieve these targets since processing at Bandhwari, which faces space constraint, will enhance,” the official said.The shortfall puts MCG’s larger timeline for clearing the Bandhwari dumpsite under renewed scrutiny. Roughly 16 lakh MT of fresh and legacy waste sat at the site as of Dec 31, 2025, and the action plan sets a target of processing 1.5 lakh MT every month from March to Dec 2026 — which, if met, would clear 15 lakh MT over the year. However, the same plan projects that approximately 8 lakh MT of waste will still remain at the landfill by Dec 31, 2026.In an affidavit submitted to National Green Tribunal (NGT) in July, MCG stated that work orders were issued to two agencies on Jan 30, 2026, together assigning them 14 lakh MT of legacy waste, split equally. MCG officials said mobilising the site takes time, particularly as fresh waste dumping continues alongside the cleanup. The affidavit also noted that MCG had already directed the agencies to increase operational capacity to meet the revised timeline — an indication that existing processing levels may not be sufficient to hit the target.With only five months remaining in the current cycle, authorities will need to substantially accelerate processing to recover the deficit while also meeting targets for the remaining months. The action plan lists March 2027 as the deadline for complete processing of waste at the site, but with the cleanup already running behind schedule by July-end, that deadline faces a serious test.“For a landfill that has remained at the centre of the city’s waste-management crisis, the latest data points to a familiar problem: ambitious targets on paper, but a significantly slower pace of actual processing on the ground,” said Vaishali Rana, an environmental activist.
