The East Delhi Municipal Corporation on Friday asked the National Green Tribunal to direct the Delhi Development Authority to hand over two plots of land that it could use to dump solid waste, as the existing landfill in Ghazipur is saturated. The municipal body is looking at over 130 acres of land at Sonia Vihar and 50 acres at Ghonda Gujran area, which the authority owns.

“The Ghazipur landfill site, which was fully saturated way back in 2000, continues to get 1,600 metric tonnes of waste of Delhi on a daily basis even after 17 years of the scheduled closure,” the plea read. “This is an alarming situation since the gases trapped in the site are a ticking time bomb, which, if an explosion takes place, will result in cataclysmic repercussion for the thousands of people who live in close proximity thereto.”

During Friday’s hearing, advocate Balendu Shekhar, appearing for the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, said the Central Pollution Control Board had approved the two pieces of land for waste management, and the Delhi Development Authority should now hand the plots over to the municipal corporation.

The petition said that two people had been killed at the Ghazipur landfill in September, after a part of the landfill collapsed. It said that its height has risen up to 65 meters, 40 metres above the prescribed limit. After the September incident, the green tribunal had asked civic authorities for an action plan to stabilise the site, and Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal had banned dumping of garbage there.

Acting National Green Tribunal Chairperson Jawad Rahim directed the Delhi Development Authority to file a detailed reply by April 23.