SYLLABUS
GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Context:
Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme (DRAP) under Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban 2.0 to eliminate legacy landfill sites and restore urban land by September 2026.
More on the News
- The Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Dumpsite Remediation Accelerator Programme (DRAP) during the inaugural session of the National Urban Conclave 2025 held in New Delhi.
- This initiative is part of the ‘Lakshya Zero Dumpsites’ mission, which aims to eliminate legacy waste and reclaim land for productive urban and community use.
- The programme adopts a fast-tracked and structured approach to accelerate the remediation of dumpsites.
- The primary goal of this programme is to reclaim valuable urban land for the development of parks, community facilities, utilities, and essential infrastructure by September 2026.
Implementation and Financial Support for DRAP
- At present, 1,428 dumpsites across India are undergoing remediation, with nearly 80% of legacy waste concentrated in 214 sites located across 202 urban local bodies (ULBs).
- The DRAP will prioritise these high-impact locations, which together contain approximately 8.8 crore metric tonnes of legacy waste.
- This initiative aims to reclaim 50% of landfill areas that remain unreclaimed and remediate 41% of unprocessed waste.
- So far, 1,048 dumpsites holding nearly 25 crore metric tonnes of waste have been completely remediated, leading to the reclamation of around 7,580 acres of urban land.
- The Central Government is providing financial assistance of ₹550 per tonne for the remediation of legacy waste under the mission.
- The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has sanctioned Central Financial Assistance (CFA) worth ₹4,181 crore for projects valued at ₹10,228 crore, benefiting 2,484 ULBs across 28 states and union territories.
- The Government has further approved ₹2,716 crore for the nationwide implementation of DRAP, and political as well as administrative leaders are being encouraged to adopt one landfill each to ensure accountability and progress.
Other Key Associated Initiatives
- Urban Invest Window (UiWIN): Another major initiative launched was the UiWIN, developed by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), which aims to act as a one-stop investment facilitation platform.
- The UiWIN platform is designed to attract private investments and enable access to long-term, concessional, and competitive financing from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for sustainable urban infrastructure projects.
- It responds to India’s projected urban infrastructure investment gap (estimated at ₹3-5 lakh crore annually) and aims to simplify the financing ecosystem for cities.
- Swachh Bharat Mission–Knowledge Management Unit (SBM–KMU): Additionally, the SBM–KMU was also launched at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
- This unit will serve as a national platform for capacity building, knowledge creation, and institutional learning under the Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban (SBM–U) framework.