Around 800 mt of waste is being generated per day in the city which contains around 45 pc of domestic and 13 pc of commercial waste, according to officials.

Now the GVMC is currently incurring Rs 20 crore per annum, on waste management and the proposed project would save around 60-70 per cent of this expenditure. Until now, the Corporation has been dumping the entire waste, either wet or dry, at the yard in Kapuluppada without any processing. The GVMC has no permission for doing so.

As a rule, Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000, are applicable to every municipal authority responsible for collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of municipal solids. APPCB officials confirmed that they had not accorded any permission for Kapuluppada dumping yard.

“We have not given permission for the dumping yard at Kapuluppada. But, it was being used for some years even though officials fail to comply by the SWM Rules, 2000,” said Senior Environmental Engineer, P Usman Ali Khan.

The local body has to obtain authorisation from the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) for setting up waste processing and disposal facility including landfills. For many years,  the yard at Kapuluppada was being used for dumping waste and the new proposal for setting up zone-wise processing units will also have to comply with some rules, according to officials.

The current dumping yard has not complied with the guidelines. It was surrounded by human habitations within 1,000 metres and is close to the national highway, said officials.

The Supreme Court of India had directed the urban local bodies, way back in 2000, to improve SWM and the GVMC recently made arrangements for disposing the solid wastes in a scientific way.