Delhi speeds up landfill cleanup, reclaims 75 acres

Delhi has processed more than 255 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste from its three major landfill sites and reclaimed nearly 75 acres of land, Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood said on Wednesday while presenting the capital’s waste remediation progress at the national Swachh Bharat Mission review conference in Vigyan Bhavan.

The review meeting was chaired by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and attended by representatives from states and urban local bodies across the country. Presenting Delhi’s progress, Sood said the city has witnessed a sharp rise in landfill remediation work after the current government took charge under Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.

According to the figures shared at the conference, around 255.03 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste have been biomined from the Okhla, Bhalswa, and Ghazipur landfill sites so far. The minister said the pace of waste processing has increased significantly over the last few years. In 2022-23, only 21.9 lakh metric tonnes of waste were processed during the entire year. In comparison, Delhi processed 74.11 lakh metric tonnes during 2025-26 alone.

Officials said daily waste processing capacity has also expanded rapidly. The city was processing nearly 6,000 metric tonnes of waste per day in 2022-23. That figure has now increased to around 20,000 metric tonnes per day.

To support the operation, the number of trommel machines deployed across landfill sites has increased to 70. Officials said all machines are operating in double shifts to accelerate waste clearance.

Sood told the conference that nearly an 82 per cent reduction in legacy waste has already been achieved at both the Okhla and Bhalswa landfill sites.