A senior civic body official said the NGT asked them about the efforts and preventive measures being taken to deal with the problem.

“The NGT has asked for details about the developments in this regard in next hearing scheduled on August 18,” the official said.

The NGT had on Monday summoned officials of those municipal corporations where the government has planned to set up the plant. Bathinda is the only municipal corporation where the plant has been successfully installed. Started as a pilot project at the Badals’ home turf, the project faced residents’ ire a week after it started operations on trial basis in January this year.

The management had to stop the treatment of solid waste with immediate effect.

Bathinda municipal commissioner Anil Kumar Garg said the civic body has informed that the team of Punjab pollution control board is already working on it and assisting its management to overcome loopholes.

“We have assured the NGT that the plant will start its operation only after adequate measures are put in place to stop emanation of foul smell,” Garg said.

He added besides it, the NGT inquired about second phase of the project for which the corporation has informed that the deadline for completion of its next phase is scheduled in 2018.

Presently, the plant has the capacity to treat only 100 tonnes of solid waste being collected from Bathinda city. As per detailed project report, Bathinda cluster would cover 18 municipalities and would treat alteast 350 tonnes of waste.

It may be mentioned that the NGT had given an environment clearance for the plant in 2014, following which the plant was set up on 20 acres of land, 100 meters away from residential areas on the Bathinda-Mansa road.

It is being operated by New Delhi based JITF urban waste management company.

The issue had also rocked general house meeting of the corporation held last week as several councillors demanded closure of the plant.