Chandigarh, Sept. 21 -- Monsoon rains have slowed down the municipal corporation's (MC) efforts to remove the legacy waste piled up at the Dadumajra dumping ground, with officials now aiming to clear the leftover 60,000 metric tonnes (MT) by November 30, 2025. During the National Green Tribunal (NGT) court hearing on Friday, officials from the UT administration and civic body assured to meet the fresh deadline. Thanks to inadequate waste processing facilities, Chandigarh has been battling two legacy waste mountains of 5 LMT and 8 LMT that came up over the past two decades. While the 5 LMT waste was processed and cleared by December 2022, MC had set the deadline for completing the bio-remediation of 8 LMT trash by July 2023. But it was extended five times: First to December 2023, then to March 2024, June, October and then finally to December 2024. The target was eventually achieved in February 2025. However, while bio-remediation of the second mountain was underway, a third mountain, with 2.40 LMT waste, emerged at the landfill as a result of the unabated dumping of unsegregated and unprocessed daily waste. In July this year, the MC counsel had submitted in the Punjab and Haryana high court that the entire garbage from Dadumajra will be cleared by the end of the month, but the deadline was missed again. Commenced on January 25, 2025, the ongoing bio-remediation project of the third legacy waste dump is around 75% complete, despite facing significant weather disruptions, according to MC. "Each day of rain halts operations due to increasing leachate formation. Even the dry waste becomes wet, making it difficult to process in the dry waste processing plant. With monsoon withdrawal, we will speed up the processing work and will complete it by November this year," said MC officials. This final waste mound is being cleared with support from two major public sector undertakings (PSUs) and the existing agency, operating in two dedicated shifts to ensure rapid progress....