Ashish Sood orders MCD to boost Ghazipur landfill biomining to 12000 TPD
Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood on Friday directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to increase the biomining capacity at the Ghazipur landfill from 7,000 metric tons per day (TPD) to 12,000 TPD by July 31. The directive aims to accelerate the scientific remediation of the 70-acre garbage dump and meet the final deadline of December 2027 to clear the site's legacy waste.
Minister Sood issued the instructions during an inspection of the landfill. He stated that the government's objective is to permanently eliminate Delhi's legacy waste challenge through scientific and time-bound remediation rather than temporary measures. He announced that progress on the Ghazipur remediation project will now be reviewed on a weekly basis, and he will return next month to assess the implementation of his directives.
A review of the project's progress revealed that Phase I, which ran from November 2022 to November 2024, processed only 13.9 lakh metric tons of waste, falling short of its contracted target of 30 lakh metric tons. Under the ongoing Phase II, which was awarded in March 2025, officials reported that nearly 24 lakh metric tons of legacy waste have been processed, reclaiming about 20 acres of land. Phase II aims to biomine 30 lakh metric tons by September 2026.
To prevent further accumulation of waste at the site, Minister Sood ordered officials to process fresh municipal waste separately from legacy waste. He directed the MCD to submit a two-month action plan for fresh waste management. Currently, approximately 2,400 to 2,500 metric tons of fresh waste arrive at the Ghazipur landfill daily from the Shahdara North and Shahdara South zones. Although a large portion is diverted to a waste-to-energy plant, nearly 800 metric tons are still dumped at the landfill daily.
According to an April 2026 drone survey, the Ghazipur landfill contained 67.81 lakh metric tons of waste. Between April 30 and June 25, about 3.39 lakh metric tons were processed, bringing the total current waste to 66.68 lakh metric tons. To expedite the process, the Minister ordered the civic body to deploy more vehicles to transport inert material generated during biomining to the NTPC Eco Park, located 23 kilometers away. A compliance report on this matter is required within a week.
