The mobile incinerator now stationed in the Fort area would be shifted to Eenchakkal by Monday evening. It is likely to begin operations there in a couple of days.
Meanwhile, consequent on the recommendations of a technical committee that recently studied the machine’s operations, the company that runs the incinerator has carried out some maintenance work, including straightening the chimney stack and redoing the silver paint on the machine’s exterior.
In the report, the committee stood by its earlier stand that the incinerator needed structural changes to optimise its functioning. The report was handed over to the government here on January 7.
The feeding of garbage into the incinerator should be completely automated and modified so that the waste falls in the middle of the primary chamber. Necessary changes should be effected in the machine so that there is no need to push waste manually to the centre of the chamber as is being done now, the report notes.
More ‘viewing ports’ should be installed in the incinerator. Now, such ports are available only for the primary chamber. There needs to be such a facility in the secondary chamber too, the report recommends.
The technical committee has also recommended that a new, advanced, temperature gauge be fitted to the machine.
According to sources in the government, the average hourly diesel consumption was found to be 77.4 litres and the average hourly incinerator rate, 0.49 tonnes.
The government is now expected to issue a GO asking Chintan Sales, the firm that sold the incinerator to SIDCO to effect the modifications recommended by the technical committee.
However, the government has not, till date, taken a call on who should own the incinerator. The main concern relating to the machine is the Rs. 4,000-plus hourly operating cost.
No agency appears willing to take on such a huge financial responsibility even for a medium term.
Moreover, the mobile incinerator has not yet been insured.
