“It is expected to be commissioned by the end of this fiscal,” she said after inaugurating the fourth Southern Regional Conference of chairmen and membersecretaries of Pollution Control Boards and Committees, here.

The station was very essential in the Greater Kochi area, identified as a critically polluted industrial cluster, and in Palakkad district’s Pudusserry panchayat where many steel mills are located.

Though the Kerala Municipalities Act and Panchayat Raj Acts have provisions for the controlling the waste generated by the local bodies, the Acts could not be implemented successfully owing to public protests against selection of sites for setting up solid waste treatment plants.

“Though the government has planned three plants for biomedical waste disposal, they could not be set up in the face of opposition from the local people. Government hospitals are unable to make proper arrangements for disposal of the bio-medical waste owing to fund shortage.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests should allot more funds to government hospitals for the purpose,” she said.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) should come up with new methods for treatment of solid waste generated by municipalities so that minimum land is used for the purpose. The State Government is planning to increase the minimum thickness of plastic carrybags from 30 microns to 50 microns while the national standard is 20 microns, she added. CPCB chief S P Gautam chaired the function. Kerala PCB chairman S D Jeyaprasad and CPCB member-secretary J S Kamyotra spoke.