Govt prepares 9-point action plan to prevent fires at landfill sites: Rai

New Delhi: The Arvind Kejriwal government has prepared a nine-point action plan to prevent incidents of fire at landfill sites in the national Capital, which includes construction of peripheral roads for fire tenders and a ban on entry of ragpickers, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Thursday.

Rai said officials of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi were asked to study a system installed in Mumbai to capture methane from the rotting waste and replicate it in the national capital to prevent fires at landfill sites.

The officials had visited the Gorai and Deonar dumping sites in Mumbai in May.

"A constant discharge of methane from these landfills, rising temperatures, and a dry atmosphere are among the main reasons behind the fires at landfill sites," the minister said.

The wet waste dumped in a landfill produces methane when it rots. In hot weather conditions, methane catches fire spontaneously and the

blaze spreads as it feeds on combustible material like textiles and plastics.

As part of the action plan, perforated high-density polyethylene pipes will be installed at the landfill sites to prevent the accumulation of the highly flammable methane gas.