The Coimbatore Corporation has begun a new exercise to manage debris after it has run out of identifying places to dump the waste.
According to sources, the civic body has engaged a consultant to study the process of debris management in such a way that the debris is collected at the place of origin, transported to a Corporation facility to be reused into a construction material.
The step is being taken after the 17 places which the Corporation had earmarked for the city’s residents to dump debris had become full six months ago and no new place was identified thereafter.
The collection and transportation of the debris will be done by a private player who will get paid based on the tonnage transported.
The plant that converts the debris into construction material will be either run by a private player or the Corporation.The consultant will have to study the economics of it. That the Corporation will have to spend from its pocket for the recycling may not be feasible.
The Corporation should be able to at least meet the cost of paying the private agency for transporting the waste and meeting the operation and maintenance expenditure of the plant.Or, the private player who operates the plant should be able to do so.
Even as the Coimbatore Corporation is taking these steps, it is also acting against those who are dumping debris along water bodies. So far it has acted against seven such persons, who dumped waste near water bodies.The trucks were seized, criminal cases were initiated and they were fined.
Sources say that the Corporation was forced to take this action as its efforts to bring around those in the construction industry have not yielded the desired results.The civic body held a few meetings with the builders but no positive results came out of it.
