Kolkata: A crisis for New Town residents over waste disposal was averted on Tuesday after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) allowed the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) to dump the daily wastes from the township at Dhapa dumping ground - a site owned and maintained by the KMC. Sources said the trouble for the NKDA broke out when Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) told the NKDA brass to search for an alternative land for disposal of wastes generated in New Town.
In 2019 the BMC was given a chunk of land at Dhapa for disposal of wastes from Salt Lake after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) put a ban on dumping wastes at Mollar Bheri, the BMC's official waste-dumping site. Later, the land at Dhapa was shared between BMC, NKDA Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA) and Panihati Municipality for disposal of wastes. However, the BMC authority that was originally allotted the land at Dhapa decided to restrict NKDA from taking additional space for dumping New Town wastes. A KMC source said, the civic authority after sensing the gravity of the situation assured the NKDA that the civic body would allow them to use its own chunk of land at Dhapa to end the impasse. "We had allotted the BMC a chunk of land at Dhapa in 2019 that can accommodate 500 tonnes of wastes per day. Now that the generation of wastes in New Town and its adjoining areas is on the rise, there is dearth of space for its disposal. We have earmarked a space where the NKDA can dispose its wastes till it finds an alternative site for disposal," said a KMC official.
A senior NKDA official on Tuesday saidthe impasse have been resolved following a meeting with their BMC counterparts on Tuesday as waste would be transported and dumped at the Dhapa ground normally from Wednesday onwards. "We will resume dumping waste at the KMC dumping ground in Dhapa from Wednesday on a normal course as before. The deadlock has been resolved," said a NKDA official.
Officials said that recently a deadlock had arisen with BMC over dumping of waste at Dhapa. "BMC was not allowing garbage trucks from New Town to dump the waste at the KMC ground of Dhapa, due to which a temporary problem had occurred in disposing the daily generated waste. The issue has now been settled. The daily generated waste will continue to be disposed at Dhapa," said a NKDA official.
Due to the problem, the daily generated waste has been piling up inside some of the large housing complexes in New Town for the last few days.
BMC officials could not be reached for any comment on the issue. BMC have also been continuing dumping the daily generated waste from Salt Lake and Rajarhat Gopalpur to the Dhapa dumping site ever since dumping waste at Mollar bheri was scrapped.
NKDA officials said that the process was on to find an alternative dumping site. The authorities were already working on the long-term project to develop an integrated solid waste management system in which waste processing and recycling plants have been planned at each of the three Action Areas of New Town. Presently, New Town generates around 85 tonnes of waste daily.