The Hindu           27.12.2011

Kochi to seek new waste treatment plant

A delegation from the Kochi corporation will meet the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday seeking his intervention for setting up a new waste treatment plant for Kochi.

The Kochi Corporation council had earlier cleared a proposal for setting up a new plant at its Brahmapuram site as the existing one had developed technical snags. The Kochi delegation will request the Chief Minister to consider the case of the city along with Thiruvananthapuram, said Tony Chammany, Kochi Mayor.

The State government should decide on the technology that should be adopted for the new plant at Brahmapuram and related matters. The intervention of the State government is necessary considering the gravity of the situation, Mr. Chammany said.

Meanwhile, the corporation council has cleared a proposal for entrusting with a private agency the responsibility of managing the existing plant at Brahmapuram. The agency—Environ Green—was selected for running the plant as it quoted the lowest rate for processing waste. Three agencies including the selected one had responded to the expression of interest floated by the corporation recently. The selected agency quoted Rs. 550 for processing one metric tonne waste.

The Corporation will soon sign an agreement with the agency for running the plant. The paper work may take one week to complete, Mr. Chammany said.

The civic body had to seek a new agency for running the plant as the Centre for Environment and Development, which ran the plant earlier, expressed its desire to end its service. The new agency will have to run the plant till a new plant is established.

As the existing plant is not functioning to its full capacity, there has been accumulation of waste at the plant site. The civic authorities had earlier cleared a portion of the accumulated waste through a process termed as capping. The corporation will have to resort to capping again for clearing the waste till a new plant is established there, civic authorities said.

Though the Kerala High Court had earlier directed the Kochi Corporation to permit neighbouring civic bodies to make use of the Brahmapuram plant for waste processing, no one has approached the civic body with such a request, said Mr. Chammany.

The court had also directed the municipalities in the district which didn't have their own waste treatment plants to dump their refuse at Brahmapuram waste treatment plant. The court issued the order after considering the views of the Ernakulam District Collector, municipal chairpersons and secretaries of 11 municipalities of Kochi and the Kochi Mayor.

Mr. Chammany had strongly objected to the proposal to allow the municipalities to dump waste at Brahmapuram. He had also expressed apprehension that such a move would invite the wrath of the general public. The Kochi Corporation is in the process of obtaining a legal opinion on the judgement and if required, the civic body will go in for an appeal, Mr. Chammany said.