Green Tribunal asks EDMC to approach expert panel for allotment of land

The NGT on Monday directed East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) to approach a high powered expert committee for its plea seeking allotment of land to develop sanitary landfills to handle 2300 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste daily.

A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked EDMC to move before the expert panel with its prayer and said it would pass orders after taking into account their recommendation. The expert committee was constituted by NGT on December 2 to look into the working of waste-to-energy plants in the national Capital. 

The direction came on the plea filed by EDMC which said there was an immediate requirement of alternate land as Ghazipur landfill site which handles 13 million tonnes (MT) of waste has outlived its normal life span. “Due to non-availability of alternate land, the garbage is continuously being added there though the same has already become 45 meters height i.e. double than the desired height of 20 meters. “To avert the existing crisis, EDMC has been relentlessly pursuing all authorities concerned as well as courts of law for several decades asking them to hand over any suitable site for developing it as Sanitary Landfill site,” it said.