Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Saturday banned garbage dumping in East Delhi’s Ghazipur, a day after the landfill collapsed and killed two people, ANI reported. Instead, the garbage will be dumped at Bhalswa, he said, after a meeting with officials from the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Delhi Development Authority and the National Highways Authority of India.
Traffic movement will be diverted to alternate routes as a safety measure, and the landfill site is expected to be cleared within 2 years. “The National Highways Authority of India assured the LG that it will begin the process of lifting, segregating and processing of the solid waste by November 2017, for its use in road construction,” the lieutenant governor’s office said.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation, which manages the landfill site, will send the collected garbage for disposal to an alternate site with immediate effect, PTI reported.
A part of the waste dump collapsed on a few vehicles around 2.30 pm on Friday, pushing them into the nearby Kondli Canal. Two people died and five others were rescued. Officials had said they suspected the continuous rains over the last few days probably led to the collapse. A case has been registered and the investigation is underway.
Waste from several parts of the city, including East and North East Delhi, Old Delhi and areas in New Delhi, were dumped at the Ghazipur landfill, which is the national Capital’s oldest site. Officials said the permissible height for a garbage dump is 20 metres, but the Ghazipur dump was at least 60 metres high.
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