The Hindu 10.11.2009
MCC ranked second in solid waste management
Staff Correspondent
| Civic body receives award at international meet in Kolkata |
Production at Pachchanady compost plant to be increased to 200 tonnes a day
Steps initiated to produce value-added products from solid waste
MAKING A POINT: Mayor M. Shankar Bhat addressing a press conference in Mangalore on Monday along with the Deputy Mayor Rajani Dugganna.
MANGALORE: The Mangalore City Corporation will increase the production capacity of its solid waste compost plant at Pachchanady from 145 tonnes a day to 200 tonnes even as the civic body has been ranked second among the 102 urban local bodies in the country for effective solid waste management.
The Mayor, M. Shankar Bhat, told presspersons here on Monday that the civic body bagged the second position award at the first international conference on solid waste management at Kolkata on November 6. The conference was held from November 4 to 6.
A selection committee of the Centre for Quality Management System, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, chose the civic body for the award titled “Award of Excellence in Solid Waste Management,” he said.
The Mayor said that K.N. Vijayaprakash, Commissioner of the corporation, received the award from Union Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy.
The Centre for Quality Management System had assessed the handling of solid waste by 102 urban local bodies having more than one lakh population. A three-member committee had assessed the solid waste management of MCC for a week in October. Mr. Bhat said that Mr. Vijayaprakash bagged the first award for best paper presentation.
Compost plant
The Commissioner said that the State Government had released Rs. 1 crore to increase the production capacity of the compost plant. At present, the civic body was collecting about 200 to 220 tonnes of solid waste a day.
Mr. Vijayaprakash said that gravity and magnetic vibrators would be fixed at the plant. The gravity vibrator would separate large-sized solid waste while the magnetic vibrator would separate metallic items.
The Commissioner said that the corporation had asked the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation to submit two proposals for starting a manufacturing unit to produce value-added products from solid waste. One of them was to recycle plastic items for mixing in tar while laying roads.
The second one was to manufacture green bricks from the hard substances segregated from the solid waste. The KCDC was expected to submit the proposals in ten days, he said.
Mr. Vijayaprakash said that the KCDC had come up with an enzyme-based solution to remove the stench emanating from the solid waste dumping yard at Pachchanady. The KCDC had been asked to suggest a solution for the fast decomposing of solid waste already dumped in the yard.
The State Cabinet had approved a proposal of the city corporation to hand over solid waste management to three contractors in three packages. The corporation would call a global tender to select the contractors once the Government issued a formal approval to this effect, Mr. Vijayaprakash said.
