Noida to start dumping waste in Astoli landfill site
The Noida authority will start dumping municipal solid waste at Greater Noida’s Astoli landfill site from March-end and put an end to dumping solid waste on vacant plots in the city.
The Noida authority will start dumping municipal solid waste at Greater Noida’s Astoli landfill site from March-end and put an end to dumping solid waste on vacant plots in the city.
Around 660 metric tonnes of municipal waste is generated every day in Noida.
Rama Raman, the chairman of the Noida authority, had in mid-January directed officials to collect and transport waste to Astoli landfill site instead of dumping it on vacant plots. Since 1976, when Noida was established, the city has been dumping its waste on vacant land.
“The chairman has asked us to transport the waste to Astoli landfill site as soon as the site is ready for the same. The landfill site has got all required environmental clearances and it is being made ready. We hope it will be ready by March-end. Once it gets ready, we will begin transporting the waste to this site and stop dumping it on vacant plots,” Saumya Srivastava, deputy chief executive officer of the Noida authority, said.
Srivastava said that the authority had to dump waste on vacant land because the city did not have a landfill site.
The authority dumps waste in sectors 62, 137 and 85, among other areas. Residents across the city have been complaining of foul smell from the garbage dumped on open plots.
“Dumping of waste on a vacant land next to a cluster of group housing complexes in Sector 137 has created many environmental issues. All places, where waste is being dumped, stink and this also pollutes the air. We hope that transporting waste to the Astoli landfill site will improve the environmental conditions,” Vikrant Tongad, an environmentalist, said.
A 110-acre landfill site and waste-to-energy plant are being set up at Astoli for both Noida and Greater Noida. Once the boundary wall around the landfill site is completed, waste generated from Noida and Greater Noida will be dumped at the landfill site.
“By March-end, we will start dumping the waste in Astoli. But the waste-to-energy plant at the landfill may be functional only by 2018 as it is time-consuming to complete all procedures,” Anand Mohan Singh, general manager of the Greater Noida authority, said.