NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has began the process of biomining and bio-remediation of the three landfills in – Bhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipur by floating tenders inviting companies to take on the process. While Bhalswa is under the jurisdiction of North MCD, the civic body is acting as a nodal agency for South and East MCDs who are responsible for maintaining the Okhla and Ghazipur landfills respectively. “Time for beginning the biomining and bio-remediation process has not yet been decided. It will depend on when the process of tender is passed by the corporation.
The number of machines and technology used by the companies will decide how quickly the work will be over,” said an official from North MCD. Biomining involves usage of separator machines or large sieves which are used for separating waste material of different sizes, thereby obtaining soil, plastic, wood and metal components in isolation for appropriate processing. Bioremediation, on the other hand, revolves around the use of bio-culture or microorganisms to degrade organic waste.
The tender advertisement “invites responses from eligible bidders for hiring of segregating trommels to biomine and bio-remediate old dump waste at Bhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipur.” The last date for companies to register with the north MCD is September 12 and the bid security is Rs 9.40 lakh. “Time for the completion of the project is 12 months,” as noted in the advertisement.
The three landfills have several million metric tonnes of waste and have gone beyond their saturation point. Earlier in July, the NGT had asked the civic bodies to follow the Ahmedabad and Indore models to “bio-remediate and biomine” the landfills in Delhi.