The Hindu 30.12.2010
Waste management project dumped into opposition bin
| Corporation plans to set up bio-fertilizer unit to dispose of waste |
heaps of health hazard: Mounds of accumulating solid waste at the garbage dump at Ariyamangalam in Tiruchi.
TIRUCHI: Uncertainty prevails over the Tiruchi Corporation's plan to establish a bio-fertilizer unit to dispose of the over 12 lakh tonnes of accumulated solid waste at its garbage dump at Ariyamangalam in the city.
The Corporation's initiative to establish a bio-fertilizer manufacturing unit has run into opposition from a section of the councillors. The Corporation, in 2007, awarded the contract for the establishment of a bio-manure production unit on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis to the Salem-based Sivasakthi Environment Development Trust.
The Trust was to pay for every tonne of solid waste supplied by the Corporation and an annual rent for the 15 acres of land given on lease for the project.
At the Monday's council meeting, the councillors have opposed the move to allow the Integrated Waste Management and Urban Services Company (Tamil Nadu) to continue the project following a novation agreement (a legal instrument that provides for an arrangement to substitute one party for another in a contract) between the two agencies.
They maintained that the project has made no tangible progress and favoured the cancellation of the contract awarded to the Sivasakthi Trust. This has put a question mark over the project.
The Corporation decided to go in for the unit after exploring various options to dispose of the mounting un-segregated solid waste at the garbage dump.
Nearly 350 tonnes of garbage from the city was being added every day to the dump.
A waste-to-energy project, planned earlier, failed to take off as the Corporation was unable to find a promoter. Plans to use the 45-acre dump yard site for other purposes, including the shifting of wholesale markets functioning at the Gandhi Market complex and for establishing an integrated bus stand, failed to materialise.
Disposing the garbage at the site was considered the ideal solution as the possibility of transporting the garbage from the site was ruled out.
Subsequently the Corporation also decided to go in for ‘scientific closure' of the accumulated garbage at its Ariyamanglam dump, on the lines of a project executed in Coimbatore.
The huge mounds of garbage were to be compacted and converted into lush green hillocks as part of an integrated waste management scheme.
Meanwhile, it is still not clear whether the Corporation would go ahead with cancellation of the contract as demanded by the councillors, given the legal implications. According to sources, the Corporation lawyer has indicated that the Integrated Waste Management Services can be allowed to continue the project.
Sources indicated that a decision would be arrived soon on the matter.
