The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has recently turned its attention to a 7.2-acre site in Khampur village, northwest Delhi’s Singhola, where over 9 lakh tonnes of silt and material from stormwater drains had been dumped. Serving as an unofficial fourth landfill for the city, the site reached capacity last year, leading to a prohibition on additional dumping. Biomining operations commenced.

The MCD had issued a letter of intent to the project’s concessionaire on November 1, with all necessary machinery now set up. A municipal official mentioned that the contractor has been given a nine-month deadline to flatten the mound of silt, and MCD staff will closely supervise the work to ensure the target is met on schedule.

The biomining project is one of six solid waste management projects that had been delayed for over a year, awaiting approval from the MCD’s standing committee, which had yet to be formed 20 months after the municipal polls. The matter remains under review by the Supreme Court, which recently requested MCD to report on its solid waste management efforts. Approval for the Singhola project was finally granted after the Delhi government delegated the standing committee’s powers to the municipal commissioner on October 14.

Initially, the Delhi Development Authority had allocated the Singhola site to the former East Delhi Municipal Corporation in 2018 as a dumping ground for silt cleared from drains. Over time, other agencies, including the PWD and the irrigation and flood control department, began depositing material dredged during pre-monsoon drainage clearance. As a result, an official explained, the site reached its capacity within just five years.

In response, MCD developed a proposal costing Rs 790 million for biomining and processing the accumulated silt to create additional space. An official noted that inert material from the site would be used by the National Highway Authority of India for road construction, plastics would be recycled, and construction debris would be processed at a C&D waste plant.

The proposal was submitted for administrative and financial approval in November 2023, and tenders were invited in March to select agencies to carry out the project. The official further noted that, while the standing committee’s approval was still pending, MCD began identifying agencies in advance to expedite the process, keeping the Supreme Court informed of the progress. Ultimately, the project’s cost was finalized at Rs 460 million.