The Hindu - Kerala 15.08.2009
Corporation gets Rs. 80 crore to acquire Brahmapuram land
Staff Reporter
| Corporation can now possess the remaining 45.30 acres |
Land can be utilised for setting up RDF plant and plastic recycling plant
Corporation seeks services of senior IAS officer for coordinating projects
KOCHI: The State government has allotted Rs. 80 crore to the Kochi Corporation to acquire the rest of the land required for further expanding the operation of its solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram.
Mayor Mercy Williams said that this has removed the sole problem of shortage of funds that was impeding the Corporation’s plan to acquire the remaining 45.30 acres of land out of the 100 acres on which the project was originally conceived.
The government will acquire the land as its property and lease it out to the Corporation, Ms. Williams told a press conference here on Friday. This, the Mayor said, had relieved the local body from the burden of taking a loan. She said that the period of lease would be known only on the issue of the government order.
She expected similar assistance from the State government for the various road development projects conceived by the Corporation.
At present the plant at Brahmapuram was operating on 63.96 acres. Though the plant had been operating for more than one year, the Corporation was constantly asked by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), under which the project was approved, as to why the rest of the land had not been acquired, Ms. Williams said.
She said that the Corporation plans to utilise the acquired land for various other waste management projects like the setting up a Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) plant and plastic recycling plant.
Ms. Williams said that the Corporation had sought the assistance of the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) on projects to treat medical and e-waste. An environmental engineer’s office would be created and it would operate out of the Corporation office to conceive similar projects for waste treatment with the assistance of the CDIA. The Mayor said that the corporation had received Expression of Interest from three companies for the operation of its waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram.
Ms. Williams said that further meetings were required at the State government level before the Corporation could go ahead with its project to launch bus service using air-conditioned low floor buses.
She said that the Corporation had requested the State government to allot the service of a senior IAS officer for inter departmental coordination needed for the implementation of its various projects. T.K. Jose, the managing director of Roads and Bridges Corporation, was familiar with the various projects of the Corporation and hoped the government would appoint him as special officer, she said.
