Ludhiana: Where on one hand the frequent fire incidents at the Tajpur Road garbage dump site has created tough time for the nearby residents as well as the firemen in dousing the fire, bioremediation of the legacy waste project has failed to pick up the pace. The officials claimed that they have been continuously asking the contractor to increase the pace and in the recent visit at the dump by the MC commissioner again he has been told to continue the work at night time also. The civic body also got a drone survey done at the dump site to verify how much waste has been settled down so far.The MC had given away the task of bioremediation of 20 lakh metric tons of waste in its second phase to a private firm in March 2024 but the actual work on ground could begin in February-March this year because the electricity connection and other requirements were not fulfilled. Now when the work has started, the contractor is bioremediating only 4000 tons per day but the requirement is to take it to 10,000 per day. Now it has been advised that work should be done at night time also so as to increase the pace.The officials claimed that the drone survey report will clear how much land has been vacated but roughly 2.5 lakh metric tons of waste has been treated.Interestingly even the first phase of the bioremediation of the legacy waste project started in 2022, for processing of 5 lakh metric tons of legacy waste took more than 3 years. The civic body is yet to declare its first phase over. The drone survey will also help them in establishing whether first phase work was completed.According to the officials, around 1,100 metric tonnes of garbage is generated in the city daily. Requesting anonymity, one of the MC officials claimed that the segregation of recyclable materials, organic waste and proper disposal methods are crucial steps to prevent fire incidents from recurring at the dump site because this is the major issue being faced by the nearby residents. He said they will have to clear legacy waste at a fast pace. The fresh waste is also turning into legacy waste in the absence of processing, he said.The superintending engineer of MC, Sham Lal Gupta said that the work is going on at the dump site and they are expecting that it will pick up pace in the coming days.There are many localities developed near this garbage dump site where people face problems when garbage catches fire. The harmful smoke emanating from the garbage also creates problems like skin and eye irritation.The bioremediation of legacy waste was directed by the National Green Tribunal, but even then it is taking a lot of time. The heaps of garbage are reaching the dump site, that too in non-segregated form, and still authorities are silent about the fresh waste processing.
