A technical committee that evaluated the working of the mobile incinerator, which began operations in Thiruvananthapuram on November 4, has reportedly concluded that the machine meets all the operational requirements laid down in the tender floated by the government and in the work order issued by it.
The committee is expected to submit its report in a day or two. This is for the second time that the committee has evaluated the functioning of the incinerator.
Officials who were present during the evaluation, which concluded here on Monday, told The Hindu that under different conditions, the incinerator burnt not less than 0.5 tonne of garbage.
It incinerated one tonne of garbage under some conditions. The consumption of diesel varied from 35 to 75 litres an hour.
It is likely that officials of the Suchitwa Mission will, in the second report also, continue to insist on modifications to the way garbage is fed into the machine so that the waste falls in the middle of the primary chamber. This way, these officials argue, more garbage can be incinerated per hour.
Company’s stance
The company running the incinerator is understood to have offered to deploy two more persons to continually prod garbage on to the middle of the chamber. The company maintains that any design change will have to be done at the expense of the government.
Moreover, a final call is yet to be taken on releasing the payment of close of Rs. 26 lakh due to the company from the government. Of this, the company had spent around Rs.4 lakh to purchase diesel from the day the incinerator began operations.
Two-day break
The incinerator will be shut down on Tuesday and Wednesday to facilitate maintenance, something that the machine has not undergone since it started functioning. Apart from a full-body wash, the company personnel are also scheduled to clean the incinerator’s oil tank, overhaul the hydraulics, and remove the accumulated waste water and residual fly ash.
