Taj city's green push turns landfill into Miyawaki forest

Agra, July 10 (IANS) Taj city Agra has revitalised a sanitary landfill at Kuberpur and replaced it with an Integrated Waste Management City, setting a national model for environmental protection and urban governance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said on Thursday.

The Agra Municipal Corporation took concrete steps to address waste dumping and convert the site into a waste management facility as part of the Ministry’s Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) 2.0, the Ministry said in a statement.

The civic agency also reclaimed about 47 acres of land at an estimated cost of Rs 320 crore and developed 10 acres with greenery using the Miyawaki afforestation technique.

The Agra utility’s effort represents a powerful step toward sustainable waste management, land reclamation, and urban beautification, it said.

Work under the project started in 2019 with expert technical guidance aimed at removing legacy waste through bioremediation and biomining technologies.

To deal with the daily inflow of waste, a 300 TPD (tonne per day) waste-to-compost plant was established in 2019 and was later expanded to 500 TPD.

In 2023, civic agency resolved to completely free the dumpsite and develop it into an Integrated Waste Management City, following the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the guidance of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, said the statement.

Four Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) with a combined capacity of 405 TPD were established across the city to streamline waste management. To ensure efficiency, 100 per cent source-level segregation of waste has been implemented, and door-to-door collection of segregated waste has been made mandatory, said the statement.

The specialised waste processing facilities include a 100 TPD cattle waste to compost plant, 5 TPD vegetable waste to compost plant, 8 TPD incineration chamber, 20 TPD construction and demolition waste processing plant, it said.

By December 2024, approximately 1.9 million metric tons of waste were removed from the dumpsite using bioremediation and biomining, reclaiming about 47 acres of land at an estimated cost of Rs 320 crores, the Ministry said.

Five acres of land have been converted into a modern sanitary landfill for the safe disposal of inert waste. The remaining area has been transformed into an eco-friendly zone. Work has begun to develop a 10-acre urban forest, it said.

In January 2025, a 65 TPD MRF-cum-Plastic Waste Processing Plant was inaugurated, where plastic waste is recycled into water pipes that farmers can purchase at affordable prices.

The centre has also become an educational and awareness hub where students and researchers from schools, colleges, IITs, research institutes, and private universities learn how sustainable solutions can be developed, said the Ministry.

--IANS

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