Pace of removing garbage from Ghazipur landfill is not satisfactory: Kejriwal

New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said that the pace of removing garbage from Ghazipur landfill is "not satisfactory" and directed the MCD to hire two more agencies to speed up the process.

Commenting on the work of the removing the garbage from the Ghazipur landfill site, Kejriwal said that on Friday he had visited Ghazipur landfill site, "and in the last few days I had visited Bhalswa and Okhla land fill site".

"At Ghazipur there is a total of over 80 to 90 lakh tonnes of garbage. The process is very slow as per target over 15 lakh tonnes of garbage should have been lifted from here, but it is said that over 5.25 lakh tonnes of the garbage has been lifted. The main reason is the fight in the joint venture of three companies. I have been informed that there is a plan to hire one more agency to lift the garbage from here. But I will suggest to hire two agencies so that the process of lifting the garbage is sped up and soon we will be able to remove the mountain of garbage," he said.

He said that this is a joint venture of three companies, and they have not been on the same page since the beginning of work.

"We are hiring 2 more agencies parallel to the existing ones to speed up the progress. Problem is that for any such big projects we need approval of the Standing Committee. To assign any such big project, the MCD needs the approval of its standing committee. The issue of Alderman is in the Supreme Court. Once the court’s order is received, the committee will be constituted, and two new agencies will be hired," he said.

He also said that during that period they will decide whether to persist with the existing three agencies which are hostile towards each other and this is hindering progress.

"But at the Ghazipur landfill site progress is not satisfactory," he said.

To a question Kejriwal said that the pace of waste removal at the Bhalswa landfill site is faster than the set target.

"The contract for lifting 30 lakh tonnes of waste has been given, which can be extended up to 55 lakh tonnes. However, there are approximately 65-70 lakh tonnes of waste at the Bhalswa landfill site. Therefore, an additional agency will need to be hired. Similarly, at the Okhla landfill site, 12 lakh tonnes of waste have been lifted compared to 18 lakh tonnes. Hence, another agency needs to be hired for Okhla as well. The biggest challenge is that the Standing Committee in the MCD has not been constituted yet, even though all the steps to hire new agencies have been completed by the MCD," Kejriwal added.