MCG cancels Ecogreen’s contract, 3 new agencies to manage waste in Ggm

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Friday night issued a final termination notice to solid waste management concessionaire Ecogreen, after getting approval from the urban local bodies (ULB) department, officials aware of the matter said adding that the MCG has given the contract for its door-to-door waste collection to three new agencies that were transporting waste from secondary points to the Bandhwari landfill.

MCG joint commissioner Naresh Kumar said that a five-member committee will be formed for a formal takeover within a week. “The committee members will comprise the deputy commissioner of Gurugram, an official from Faridabad and other stakeholders to streamline the process. A draft was sent by MCG to ULB mentioning that the concessionaire had stopped its door-to-door waste collection operations, transportation of waste from secondary collection points, decentralised waste processing at its material recovery facilities, management of legacy waste at the Bandhwari landfill, and leachate treatment, among others. The decision was taken after considering all the issues that were not resolved in the past seven years,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ecogreen Energy, in an official statement, said that they had to deal with a “mafia” which collected the waste, hampering the company’s operations.

The contract that was allegedly signed for 20 years was terminated within seven years due to the agency’s poor performance, MCG officials said.

After the contract was signed in August 2017, Ecogreen had to meet some targets like 100% coverage of households for door-to-door waste collection within a year, recycling 80% of the collected waste within a year, 100% segregation of waste at source within six months, and work continuously for seven days. However, the concessionaire failed to achieve any of the targets, they added.

The agreement also mandated 100% scientific waste disposal within six months of establishing the sanitary landfill. Despite this, the landfill site has not been developed, and the waste is being disposed of in an unorganised and chaotic manner on the designated land for the landfill, read the draft.

Kumar said 100% household level coverage of MSW collection services through door-to-door collection of waste was to be achieved within 12 months of signing of the agreement, but they had failed to achieve that. “Similarly, 100% segregation of waste was to be achieved within six months of signing the agreement, but they failed to achieve this benchmark as well. Additionally, the concessionaire has deliberately failed to collect waste continuously for several months. These deliberate lapses on the part of Ecogreen also contributed to the termination of the contract,” he said.

The joint commissioner said moreover, 80% recycling/processing of waste collected was to be achieved within 12 months of signing of the agreement but the agency fell short of the target. “Scientific disposal of waste was to be achieved nearly 100% within 6 months from the date of setup of the sanitary landfill, however, the landfill site has not been developed and the waste is being dumped in a haphazard manner on the land provided for the development of the project. Even the redressal of customer complaints-- 80% of which was to be achieved within 9 months of signing, was not done. Instead, the number of complaints has substantially increased due to the inefficiency of the concessionaire,” he said.

The MCG alleged that despite the contract being executed in 2017, almost seven years have lapsed, but the concessionaire could not achieve financial closure in accordance with the provisions of the contract. The concessionaire was required to achieve financial closure within 180 days by March 12, 2018. But it was not done.

Nagarjuna Reddy, COO of Ecogreen Energy, said that since Ecogreen started its operations, many unauthorised vendors/mafia were collecting door-to-door waste, and they were not allowing us to operate. “We requested MCG’s support about this, but we didn’t receive support. We also lodged a police complaint too. Ecogreen had installed a leachate treatment plant and two DTROs for leachate management at the landfill site, but due to the high amount of legacy waste, which was supposed to be cleared by MCG, it was not properly controlled.

The corporation also mentioned in the draft that it was compelled to impose a penalty amounting to crores for the breach of the agreement by the concessionaire. The draft states that the National Green Tribunal’s strict directions for pollution control in the city came after Ecogreen’s shortcomings emerged. The MCG has made it clear that any penalties imposed on the Corporation due to Ecogreen’s negligence will be borne solely by the agency.

MCG commissioner Narhari Singh Bangar said according to Articles 5.5, 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8 of the Contract, the concessionaire was contractually liable to ensure the primary collection of waste from the point of generation. “Also, setting up of secondary collection points for storage of waste, transportation of waste from secondary collection points to the processing facility and processing and disposal of MSW respectively. However, since the very inception of the contract, the concessionaire has shown disregard for the contractual provisions. Moreover, the Concessionaire’s excuse regarding the processing of waste being extracontractual is also wrong and an attempt to evade its contractual obligations,” he said.

Gurugram residents have pointed out that the concessionaire had stopped transporting waste from secondary collection points since June 28 last year. “We had complained to the MCG several times regarding sloppy door-to-door collection and consequent dumping at unauthorized sites but the issue was not resolved,” said Joginder Singh, former RWA president of Sushant Lok -3.