Entire Dadu Majra waste to be cleared by July: Centre

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has stated that bio-remediation of the entire waste at the Dadu Majra dumping ground will be completed by July 2025.

In response to questions raised by city MP Manish Tewari over the garbage mountain at Dadu Majra during the ongoing Parliament session, Kirti Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, stated that as per information provided by the Municipal Corporation (MC), 5 lakh metric tonne of legacy waste had been bio-remediated at the dump between 2019 and 2022. The work was executed by Chandigarh Smart City Limited.

“The work for bio-remediation of 13.3 lakh cubic metre of waste is scheduled for completion by December 2024,” he said, adding that the MC has also informed the government that a large number of machines along with transportation system have been deployed for the bio-remediation of the remaining waste by July 2025. Tewari had asked the minister whether the government was aware that a mega garbage dump was located in Dadu Majra, which was causing a severe air and water pollution in sectors and 22 adjoining villages.

He had further asked whether the Chandigarh Administration/Municipal Corporation had given an undertaking to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to clear the entire garbage dump by the last week of December 2024; whether the Government was aware that no substantive steps had been undertaken to wholly or substantially fulfil the undertaking given to the NGT; and what were the details of steps proposed to be taken by the government to address this issue.

Inadequate waste-processing facilities had resulted in two legacy waste mountains of 5 lakh MT and 8 lakh MT at Dadu Majra in the past decades.

The bioremediation of the old dump on 20 acres started on October 22, 2020. The entire legacy waste of 5 lakh metric tonne (LMT) had been processed and 20 acres reclaimed in December 2022.

However, the bio-remediation of the second waste mountain of 8 LMT is underway. Of the total waste, 7.80 LMT of trash has been processed and the rest would be cleared by December-end.

Meanwhile, a third mountain of waste of nearly 1.25 LMT?has come up at the place as a result of non-segregation of daily waste.

An official said only 20 MT of legacy waste (second mountain) was remaining at the dump and it would be removed by December-end.