The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) is planning to set up its own biomedical waste treatment plant to dispose of the biomedical waste generated in the city from hospitals and clinics. Currently, the generation of the biomedical waste is in abundance in the city due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the city has no means of disposing of such a large quantity of biomedical waste, this waste is sent to Roorkee for its disposal by the corporation. While talking to The Pioneer, municipal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said, "With our own set up of biomedical waste treatment plant in Dehradun, we will not be dependent on others for the biomedical waste disposal." Pandey further informed that MCD was thinking about setting up the plant even before the lockdown was implemented but further planning and execution will be done only after the lockdown is lifted.

On the question of whether the said treatment plant will be set up near the Sheeshambada waste management and recycling plant, he said that nothing is confirmed yet about the location of the plant. Talking about the disposal of the garbage collected from containment zones which are sealed by the district administration to prevent Covid-19 contagion, Pandey said that all the garbage gathered from such zones is primarily disinfected by sanitation workers. According to him, the garbage is collected in each zone during the evening after which sanitation workers disinfect it and then it is sanitised again the next morning. Subsequently, the garbage is lifted from each area and then items like masks and gloves are separated from the trash and put in biomedical waste, said Pandey.

He further informed that the garbage of the quarantine centres is treated similarly to containment zones whereas the garbage of the home quarantined people is being treated as routine.

Apart from this, Pandey informed that the sanitation workers deployed by MCD from Bijnor, who were staying in Rain Baseras during the lockdown, have returned to their homes too.