The Hindu        23.03.2011

Waste treatment plant to start by April first week

Action plan to be submitted to Coimbatore Corporation

In all probability the solid waste management facility at the Vellalore dump yard will start functioning from the first week of April.

The company operating the facility, Coimbatore Integrated Waste Management Private Ltd., will shortly submit an action plan to the Coimbatore Corporation for approval. Once that is done, the operator will have the go ahead to process the 600-odd tonnes waste the city generates a day.

The Corporation's move to begin operations comes close on the heels of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board granting clearance to operate the plant.

It has constructed the plant at Rs. 96 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The action plan will have the standard operating procedure and details related thereto.

Once the waste management begins, the Corporation will monitor three important parameters: the quantity of waste that goes to the dump yard for treatment, the percentage bio and non-bio degradable waste and the amount of waste that is taken to the landfill, says a source.

For, the civic body has to pay the company based on the quantity of waste transported as well as processed. As per the agreement it will pay around Rs. 900 for a tonne of waste collected and processed.

Collection

The Corporation, however, will continue with the primary and secondary waste collection – from houses to bins on streets and from there to the four transit stations.

The company will then compact the waste, and transport the same in closed containers to the dump yard.

In the first year of operations, the civic body will segregate about 50 per cent of the waste, 75 per cent in the second year and cent per cent the third year onwards.

Since 100 per cent segregation is impossible in the first year, the civic body is making a gradual progress, the source explains.

The Corporation and the company are in talks with ITC and ACC for managing recyclable solid waste and plastics respectively.

The solid waste that cannot be recycled will go to the nearby scientific landfill site.

To monitor the progress, the civic body will appoint sanitary inspectors at the four transit stations, weigh bridges, compost plant and landfill site.

They will co-ordinate with the company officials to ensure that the waste is processed as per norms.

The source says that the Corporation cannot afford to be lethargic in waste management because the licence the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has granted is for a year.

To extend the licence by another year, the Board will check ambient air quality at the Vellore dump yard, ground water quality, etc.

The action plan will have information about standard operating procedure