A view of Jawahar Nagar dump yard.
| Photo Credit: File photo
The National Green Tribunal has imposed a penalty of ₹1 lakh on the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Hyderabad Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Limited, the solid waste management company for the city of Hyderabad, for failing to comply with its previous instructions against carrying the city’s waste to the Jawahar Nagar dump yard.
The court has anyway modified the earlier order, permitting GHMC to bring fresh waste to the site solely for processing in the reclaimed area where the solid waste agency is operating, and not on the capped site.
The court found it unacceptable that the order delivered on October 28, was followed only from November 6, after it was uploaded on to the NGT website, and noted that once the order is pronounced in the open court in the presence of counsels and parties, it takes effect immediately.
During the hearing on October 28, the Southern bench of the apex green court passed interim orders to stall the transfer of fresh solid waste to Jawahar Nagar, pending a report by IIT Bombay about disposal of legacy waste from the solid waste processing facility at Jawahar Nagar. It had put an embargo on refuse derived fuel too, while allowing the processing of the existing waste in the facility.
However, GHMC did not comply with the order even after the order was uploaded, as it did not have anywhere to dump the waste. The interim order was delivered while hearing a petition against the pollution caused by the dump yard.
During November 10 hearing, GHMC informed the bench comprising judicial member Pushpa sathyanarayana and expert member Prashant Gargava that IIT Bombay has proposed short-term and medium-term studies to evaluate leachate extraction efficiency and treatment, assess sub-surface conditions, stabilise fresh waste, manage surface run-off and monitor groundwater and piezometric data from borewells.
A long-term study has also been suggested for landfill rehabilitation, a comprehensive hydrological assessment with long-term monitoring, development of practical biomining guidelines, and evaluation of the condition of waste in the capped landfill after two to three years or later by employing advanced geophysical investigations.
GHMC has undertaken that it will implement these recommendations in a time-bound manner, engaging IIT Bombay for further studies and guidance.
Earlier on October 23, IIT Bombay visited the site and held meetings with stakeholders, including GHMC and TGPCB. The discussions covered air quality management, leachate management, and stormwater/surface water management. IIT Bombay observed that if biomining is undertaken, it would need to be planned at a scale of 19,000–20,000 MT per day which poses significant operational challenges. Hence, it recommended maintaining the status quo of the capped dump site while strengthening air, leachate, and stormwate rmanagement systems, along with periodic monitoring.
Published – November 12, 2025 11:16 pm IST
