Chandigarh, 30 October 2024: As Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann recently reviewed the municipal corporation’s (MC) progress report on the Phase-8B dumping site, including its revenue, expenditures, and ongoing waste processing. The Municipal corporation aims to fully process the remaining waste within a year, according to a senior MC official.
Currently, the MC has completed bioremediation on 2,77,490 cubic meters, or 67%, of the 4,13,441 cubic meters of legacy waste that covers 10 acres at the site, he said.
Officials disclosed that the report was presented to the CM during a Tuesday meeting with MC representatives. The legacy waste at Phase-8B has repeatedly hampered the city’s performance in the Swachh Survekshan rankings. While the city improved by 31 spots in 2023 to rank 82nd out of 446 cities with populations over 100,000, the waste mountain remains a prominent concern.
In addition to tackling legacy waste, the MC faces ongoing challenges with daily garbage collection due to six non-functional resource management centers (RMCs) out of the city’s 14. This has forced garbage collectors to divert waste to the remaining eight RMCs, leading to overflowing waste and drawing residents’ complaints about the unpleasant conditions around these areas.
The situation escalated in June after former local bodies secretary Ajoy Sharma directed the MC to cease dumping waste at the Phase-8B landfill, in line with Punjab and Haryana High Court’s mandate to implement bioremediation. With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) also monitoring the site, the MC was left to handle all city waste at the RMCs, quickly resulting in overflow.
Previously, the Phase-8B site received around 100 metric tonnes (MT) of waste daily, which compounded the load on the remaining RMCs. To manage this, the MC temporarily contracted a Panchkula-based company in August to process collected waste, agreeing to pay ₹1,090 per tonne alongside the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA). While Mohali produces over 100 MT of waste each day, the contractor currently processes 40 MT at a private plant in Lalru.
Now, the civic body has issued a fresh tender to handle 100 MT of garbage daily. According to an MC official, “We aim to have all RMCs functional by November’s end. We’ll soon award the work order to manage 100 MT of daily garbage, with provisions for increased capacity if city population growth demands it.” This contract will last around four years, pending approval from the local bodies department.
The MC commissioner added that maintenance at the RMCs has been fast-tracked, expressing confidence that waste collection and processing issues will soon be resolved.
