The Tiruchi City Corporation plans to set up a Refuse Derived Fuel
(RDF) plant on a Public and Private Participation (PPP) mode to convert
waste to energy from the accumulated waste at its Ariyamangalam garbage
dump.

Under the proposal, which is under the consideration of the
Directorate of Municipal Administration, a RDF plant will be set up at
an estimate of Rs. 25 crore to produce fuel from the solid waste dumped
at Ariyamangalam. The plant is expected to handle about 600 tonnes a day
to produce energy. Excavation, segregation and waste stabilisation were
part of the process of producing fuel from waste.

According to a
rough estimate, Tiruchi generates 450 tonne of waste daily from
different parts of the city. Though there are four micro compost yards
in the city, most of the solid waste is still being dumped in
Ariyamangalam dump yard. It is said have stored about 11 lakh cubic
meter of waste over the years.

Corporation authorities say that
the earlier proposals such as bio-mapping and bio-mining were found to
be expensive and time consuming. However, the Refuse Derived Fuel method
was found to be functioning successfully at Maraimalai Adigal Nagar in
Chennai and Pune in Maharashtra.

“We
are badly in need of a viable method to the long pending problem of
disposing the accumulated garbage at the dump. If we go ahead with the
RDF proposal, I think, the entire solid waste at Ariyamangalam will be
processed and cleared within five years,” said N. Ravichandran,
Corporation Commissioner. Tiruchi.

It had been decided to
implement the project on PPP mode. The Corporation would provide garbage
and land at the dump yard on lease basis. The private agency would
install machineries and take care of manpower requirement, he added.

Mr.
Ravichandran said a team of officials had visited Maraimalai Adigal
Nagar to study the functioning of the RDF plant. One more team would be
sent shortly for the next level exposure.