Machines with trommel to separate materials would be set up on the old trenching ground on Sahastradhara Road by the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) to treat about 10 lakh metric tonnes of garbage. According to the officials, for now the focus is on levelling the five bigha portion of the ground for construction of the Sainya Dham.

The old trenching ground has a thick layer of garbage above the ground. The non-biodegradable wastes like plastics are stuck in between the layers of soil and biodegradable waste which is difficult to segregate and treat in about one year. However Dehradun municipal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said that the treatment and disposal of garbage from the old trenching ground will take only a couple of years with the help of bioremediation.

According to Pandey, “The garbage in the trenching ground will be treated with the help of bioremediation. In this procedure, initially, the garbage at the ground is being accumulated in a single place. After the accumulation, the machines with trommels will be set up there to treat the garbage which will separate the trash into three forms.”

He said that the three forms would be compost, Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) and inert waste out of which the first two items will be sold or disposed by MCD whereas the inert waste will be dumped in the solid waste management and recycling plant in Sheeshambada after its proper treatment. The whole procedure of clearing the old trenching ground will take about one or two years, he added.

According to the MCD assistant engineer Ved Prakash Badhani, “The garbage is getting collected on a lower level land near the old trenching ground and then the procedure of recycling the garbage will also begin. For now, our focus is on clearing and levelling the five bigha land where Sainya Dham is proposed to be built.” He further said that the procedure will be carried out on whole of the old trenching ground.  The procedure of capping technique will also begin after the land is levelled.

The municipal commissioner informed that a team of experts in bio-mining has arrived in the city and after the inspection of the old trenching ground; they will suggest the best methods by which the garbage on the ground can be processed and treated.

A team of non governmental organisation Waste Warriors is also working on the old trenching ground in association with MCD. According to the group’s manager Naveen Kumar Sadan, “We are picking up the plastics, polythene and other kinds of waste which haven’t mixed with the dirt yet and can still be recycled. The garbage which gets mixed with soil and dirt is hard to process, that is why we are picking up the garbage at the surface only. We will recycle it in our waste material recycle centre in Dehradun.”

It is pertinent to mention here that a Sainya Dham and a public park are proposed to be developed on the old trenching ground.