Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had earlier given a deadline of four months, beginning March 3, to have the landfill flattened and cleared of legacy waste.

Around 13 lakh metric tonnes of solid waste is present at the site, of which nearly 9 lakh metric tonnes is legacy waste.

Dahiya said the civic body would be sharing the details of the affidavit in a pending case on air pollution in Delhi NCR before the Supreme Court.

Dahiya stated that the civic body will look at the issue holistically, and is expediting issuance of fresh tenders and requests for proposal for door-to-door segregated waste collection and subsequent processing in the district.

Further, authorities have begun exploring possible alternative land parcels keeping in mind the eco-sensitive Aravallis. “It is not like all this cannot be done. There is tremendous will, both political and administrative, quite frankly.”

Environmentalist Vaishali Rana said that judicial delays have enabled the issue to remain pending due so long.

“For nine years we have been before the National Green Tribunal regarding Bandhwari but they always give the government time and cut them slack on some pretext or the other. I have lost faith, nothing will happen. This is a landfill right in the centre of Aravallis and all the leachate is going into the forests,” Rana said.

Last month, there were four incidents of fire outbreaks reported from the landfill located on the border of Gurgaon and Faridabad districts. These were on April 3, 6, April 21 and 26, and each took several days to be cleared fully.

The Supreme Court, taking note of the same, had asked for an affidavit regarding the timelines to clear the legacy waste that triggered the fires.

Neelam Ahluwalia, founder member of People for Aravallis, had earlier told The Indian Express that if all of Gurgaon and Faridabad’s waste is segregated at source, and dry waste is recycled, then only 15-20 per cent of the waste will have to be sent to the landfill.