The central government has launched a mission-mode program to expedite the elimination of waste from 214 major legacy landfills across India by October 2026. These sites hold approximately 88 million tonnes of waste, representing about 80% of the country's remaining legacy waste, spread across 202 municipal areas, including major cities like Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and others.
The "Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme (DRAP)" was launched at the National Urban Conclave by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. He has encouraged elected officials and community leaders to "adopt" landfills in their regions and utilize corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, private entities, and state agencies to achieve the goal of eliminating legacy dumpsites within a year. Khattar himself has adopted the Bhalswa landfill in Delhi.
According to officials, larger landfills nationwide will be given priority under the program, operating on the "5P framework": political leadership, public finance, public advocacy, project management, and partnerships. Cities will need to develop micro-action plans for each dumpsite, prevent fresh dumping post-remediation, and plan for utilizing the reclaimed land. Progress will be monitored in real-time via the DRAP portal, with the Ministry providing financial and technical assistance to municipal bodies.
Alongside DRAP, the Ministry also introduced the Urban Investment Window (UWIN), a platform to attract private capital and long-term funding for urban development. UWIN will focus on promoting Public-Private Partnership (PPP) based urban projects to accelerate sustainable infrastructure development.
The DRAP initiative aims to achieve "Lakshya Zero Dumpsites" by September 2026 and reclaim valuable land for public use and community development. Currently, 1,428 sites are under remediation, with 80% of the legacy waste concentrated in the 214 priority sites. The government has allocated central financial assistance of ₹550 per tonne for waste remediation.
Since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 in 2021, about 50% of the land under legacy dumpsites has been freed. As of November 2025, 1,048 out of 2,476 dumpsites, holding approximately 25 crore metric tonnes of waste, have been remediated, reclaiming nearly 7,580 acres of land.
While biomining projects have faced delays, particularly at the Ghazipur landfill, efforts are underway to expedite the process. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) plans to divert some waste from Ghazipur to the Okhla landfill due to unstable slopes and space constraints.
The waste and recycling industry is also seeing increasing discussions around Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs) and the accurate measurement of GHG emissions. Furthermore, there's an increased focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to enhance efficiency, optimize processes, and improve environmental outcomes in waste management. AI is being used to predict MSW generation and improve material recovery in sorting facilities.
