New Delhi [India], June 26 : Delhi Minister for Urban Development Ashish Sood on Friday conducted an extensive inspection of the Ghazipur Landfill Site and reviewed the progress of ongoing legacy waste remediation works with senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the executing agency.
According to an official release, the Ghazipur landfill, spread across nearly 70 acres, has been operational since 1984. Despite directions issued by the National Green Tribunal in 2019, the dumpsite continued to grow and reached an approximate height of 65 metres, becoming one of the largest garbage mountains in the country.
Reviewing the progress of remediation, Ashish Sood said the present Delhi Government has adopted a mission-mode approach to scientifically eliminate Delhi's legacy landfill sites under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
The Minister noted that Phase-I of biomining, executed between November 24 2022 and November 19, 2024, was awarded for processing 30 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste. However, only 13.90 lakh metric tonnes could actually be biomined during the entire contract period.
Following the formation of the present Government in February 2025, the remediation process was significantly expedited. Phase-II was awarded on March 7, 2025 for biomining with 30 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste, scheduled for completion by September 2026.
Minister Sood informed that nearly 24 lakh metric tonnes of waste has already been processed under Phase-II, while approximately 20 acres of land have been successfully reclaimed, creating much-needed operational space for future waste management infrastructure.
As per the latest drone survey conducted in April 2026, the Ghazipur site contained 67.81 lakh metric tonnes of waste. Between April 30 and June 25 2026, approximately 3.39 lakh metric tonnes of waste has been processed through biomining, resulting in the total waste presently standing at 66.68 lakh metric tonnes, including both legacy and fresh waste. The current target is to remove the remaining waste by December 2027.
During the inspection, Ashish Sood identified two major operational bottlenecks affecting the pace of remediation.
The first challenge relates to continuous addition of fresh municipal waste. Approximately 2,400-2,500 metric tonnes of fresh waste reaches the Ghazipur site every day from Shahdara North and Shahdara South Zones. Out of this, a substantial quantity is diverted to the Waste-to-Energy Plant, while around 800 metric tonnes per day continues to be added to the fresh waste heap at the landfill.
The Minister directed officials to immediately develop a system under which fresh waste will be processed separately from legacy waste, preventing further accumulation and ensuring uninterrupted biomining operations. He further directed that a detailed 2 month Fresh Waste Processing Action Plan be submitted to the Minister's Office.
The second major bottleneck identified during the inspection was the disposal of inert material generated during biomining. Officials informed the Minister that arrangements have now been made for disposal of inert material at the NTPC Eco Park, located approximately 23 kilometres from the Ghazipur landfill site.
Ashish Sood directed the executing agency to immediately increase the deployment of transportation vehicles for inert lifting and submit a compliance report to the Minister's Office within one week, ensuring that inert disposal does not slow down the biomining process.
Presently, biomining operations are processing around 7,000 metric tonnes of waste per day. Taking serious note of the need to accelerate remediation, Ashish Sood directed officials and the contractor to enhance the daily processing capacity to 12,000 metric tonnes per day by 31 July 2026, with clear accountability for achieving the target.
To ensure continuous monitoring, the Minister announced that the Ghazipur remediation project will now be reviewed every week, and he will personally revisit the landfill next month to assess compliance with today's directions and review the pace of implementation.
Speaking after the inspection, Ashish Sood said, "The people of Delhi deserve permanent solutions, not temporary measures. After the present Government assumed office, work at Ghazipur has gathered pace with renewed accountability and close monitoring. Today we have identified every major bottleneck, fixed timelines for resolving them and issued clear directions to accelerate biomining. Our objective is not merely to reduce the height of the landfill, but to permanently eliminate Delhi's legacy waste challenge through scientific and time-bound remediation."
The Minister reiterated that the Delhi Government remains fully committed to eliminating the legacy landfill sites of Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla through scientific waste management, regular monitoring and result-oriented governance.