Consequent upon the decision to collect and safely dispose of debris, the Coimbatore Corporation is in the process of fine-tuning the debris collection process. According to Commissioner G. Latha, the Corporation had asked builders a few days ago not to dump debris outside the designated places.
The Corporation had recently identified vacant sites and wells in various wards across the city to enable the builders to dump debris there.
But it appears that the Corporation’s efforts had not been highly successful.
A couple of days ago, the Corporation seized a lorry that was used in dumping debris outside the permitted area. Ms. Latha said that the reason for non-compliance could be that the builders found it convenient to dump the debris alongside tanks or other places.
The Corporation had already initiated action against the lorry owners. Meanwhile, the civic body would also write to the Coimbatore City Police this week to seek their help in identifying those who dumped debris outside the designated area.
The other action that the Corporation had planned, according to sources, was to collect the debris right at the builders’ sites using its men and machinery.
If the issue behind builders’ reluctance to dump garbage at the designated sites was that they did not want to spend money on transporting the debris, the civic body was ready to do so.
The Corporation would earmark a vehicle, which would go around and collect debris on a daily basis. And this would come at a nominal charge, which the Corporation would decide at a later date by getting the Council’s approval.
Besides, the Corporation was also exploring the possibility of engaging a contractor with expertise in converting debris into products such as paver blocks and bricks to reuse the debris.
Ms. Latha said that she had invited to Coimbatore the contractor she found during a recent visit to New Delhi. The contractor would make a presentation to the officials here and then make a study. Based on the outcome, the Corporation would engage him for debris management.
If that were to materialise, the contractor would collect all the debris. This way, the Corporation hoped to find a solution for the debris problem, she added.
