The Kochi Corporation will now process refuse from Cochin Port Trust (CPT). A request in this regard from CPT was cleared at a meeting of the corporation council.
“The civic body will undertake the task for a period of six months or the time till a facility at the port is readied, whichever is earlier,” said V.K. Minimol, chairperson of the health standing committee.
At present, the corporation processes refuse from neighbouring local bodies including Thrikkakara, Angamaly, Aluva, and Thripunithura and Cheranalloor panchayat. The corporation has also been collecting a processing fee of around ₹1,200 a tonne of refuse.
CPT has been directed to send segregated and bio-degradable waste in its own vehicle to the processing plant at Brahmapuram. It will have to make its own arrangements for processing plastic and other non-biodegradable refuse, Ms. Minimol added.
Earlier, there had been complaints that refuse from Willingdon Island was being dumped at Vathuruthy and other parts of the city. “Whenever there is a complaint of illegal dumping of refuse, the civic body had to step in and remove waste at its own expense,” she pointed out.
“CPT will have to pay ₹1,200 a tonne, and it is estimated that the trust will have at least one tonne of waste a day to process. Councillors representing the region had also recommended processing of refuse at the Brahmapuram plant. Hence the decision,” Ms. Minimol said.
