Four modern slaughterhouses will be up and running within city saving meat traders the trouble of going till Chengicherla. Construction is set to begin in Amberpet, New Bhoiguda, Gowlipura and Ramnaspura with the overall revised cost of nearly Rs. 50 crore.
These sites had earlier housed the manual slaughterhouses.
Old structures have been demolished now to make way for the new ones, said a senior GHMC official. Ramky Enviro Engineers had bagged the contract for all the four modern ones to be equipped with effluent treatment plants and also a rendering unit near the existing modern abattoir at Chengicherla.
The rendering plant spread over eight acres will be a common plant for all the four new slaughterhouses to recycle left over animal parts and this alone is estimated to cost Rs. 19 crore. All the sites have been handed over to Ramky and designs are being prepared for the new plants, said the official.
Milestone
It's a significant milestone considering that there were no takers for the works twice when tenders were called, had to be cancelled the third time due to excess quotation and also the fourth time when two bids received were disqualified in the eligibility criteria.
Guidelines
However, the Union Government's Ministry of Food Processing having cleared a grant of nearly Rs. 14.78 crore and with an aim to ground the project, revised the costs and issued fresh guidelines. Following which fresh tenders and Ramky was the lowest bidder among the two bids received.
It has tied up with a Netherlands firm – MPS Industries and Belgium firm – Euro Industries, to build the plants and run it on a trial basis for three months. Largest slaughterhouse will be at Gowlipura spread over an area of 4.14 acres but it can handle only 400 sheep in terms of capacity; Amberpet slaughterhouse with 3.03 acres will have the highest capacity of handling 300 catttle and 2,000 sheep; New Bhoiguda (2.67 acres) plant is slated to handle 2,000 sheep and 200 cattle; Ramnaspura (078 acres) plant will handle 100 cattle each day. Fifth manual slaughterhouse was in Ziaguda but the plan to build a modern one here had to be shelved as the area comes within the 20 km radius of the Himayatsagar and Osmansagar lakes. The High Court had been unwavering in ensuring this is complied with despite efforts made to alter the lakes protection rule.
