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Ludhiana's Trash Mountains Stall Project, Fueling Toxic Smoke
13 Apr
Summary
- City's multi-crore waste project stalled, only 10% processed.
- Contractor cites delays, environmental mandate ignored for 18 months.
- Residents suffer toxic smoke from fires due to unmanaged waste.
A critical environmental project in Ludhiana, aimed at dismantling the city's notorious "mountains of trash," has stalled. The municipal corporation's bioremediation initiative at the Jamalpur dump site is proceeding at an extremely slow pace. The private contractor took over 18 months to commence ground operations, citing technical challenges and issues with securing an electricity connection. To date, only 10% of the targeted 20 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste has been processed.
The project's objective of settling this substantial waste volume is becoming increasingly unattainable. Daily, Ludhiana generates approximately 1,100 metric tonnes of fresh garbage. Without an effective system to manage this inflow, new waste is accumulating and becoming legacy waste, undermining any remediation efforts.
Residents living near the dump site are suffering significant public health issues. The waste heaps frequently ignite, releasing harmful smoke that causes chronic skin and eye irritation. While an MC official noted that waste segregation is key to preventing fires, garbage continues to arrive unsegregated.
An executive engineer with the MC stated that work is ongoing and expected to accelerate, with a firm soon to begin converting wet waste into compost. However, authorities face criticism for their silence on a definitive solution for fresh waste management as the heaps continue to grow.
