The Hindu 04.04.2013
Nanjundapuram STP issue: civic body confident of resuming work
‘Corporation has facts on its side to fight the case’
The one-step-forward-two-step-backward phenomenon has
hit again the Coimbatore Corporation in the Nanjundapuram Sewage
Treatment Plant issue. On Tuesday last, the National Green Tribunal’s
southern Bench restrained the civic body from resuming the STP work.
The
Mayflower Sakthi Gardens Owners’ Association, the petitioners,
contended that the STP’s location does not confirm to the criterion the
Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has laid. The STP site should
at least be 500 m away from the residential area.
It
was only on March 18 that the Corporation moved a resolution before the
Council seeking the elected body’s approval to resume the STP
construction. It said that a delay of 42 months has forced the
Corporation to cough out an additional Rs. 17.50 crore.
It
said that the Corporation issued work order in May 2008 to Hindustan
Dorr Oliver Ltd., a Mumbai-based company, to start construction of the
STP with a capacity to treat 40 million litres a day at the
Nanjundapuram site. By April 28, 2009 the work had come to a halt as the
residents of the area moved a court, opposing the construction of the
STP.
After 42 months, in October 2012, the TNPCB gave
the Corporation consent to establish order on the conditions that the
civic body will shift the C-Tech Basin away from the residential
buildings, increase the height of the compound, install odour mitigation
system and increase the diesel generator capacity from 750 kVA to 1,250
kVA.
The Board also asked the Corporation to put in
place a mechanism whereby it will be easy for the environment engineers
at the TNPCB office in Chennai to monitor the functioning and
maintenance of the STP on a real-time basis.
The
Corporation sent the proposal to the office of the Chief Engineer at the
office of the Commissioner for Municipal Administration, who, suggested
a few changes and added that the Corporation could go ahead with the
proposal provided it bore the cost from its general fund.
The Corporation took the proposal to the Council, which waved the green flag.
Sources
in the civic body say that they are not worried as the Corporation is
confident of getting the stay vacated. The civic body will highlight to
the Bench that the Corporation pumped its untreated waste at the very
site and now has chosen to treat the waste and pump it to River Noyyal.
The
site has been a sewage farm for over for over 30 years. The sources
point out that at the time of granting approval for the housing project,
the residents of which are now opposing the STP, the Corporation has
said that the sewage farm was nearby and that the project promoters were
building the same at their risk knowing fully well the consequences.
The sources add that the civic body has facts on its side to fight the case and resume the work at the earliest.
