Owing to shortage of large pieces of land measuring 100 acres in the neighbouring districts, the Chennai Corporation is planning to make do with smaller plots of half the size for setting up of the solid waste management factories on the city's outskirts.
Even though a large piece of land measuring around 100 acre has been identified in the northern parts of the city's outskirts by the Tiruvallur district administration, plot of land is far away from the city. Most of the plots of lands closer to the city are smaller in size. The district administration of Kancheepuram recently identified a 55-acre plot of land in Malaipattu village located 29 km from the Chennai Corporation limits on Vandalur-Sriperumbudur Road.
This is likely to be ideal for the solid waste management factory for garbage collected by the southern parts of the city. The civic body, which planned to identify three 100-acre plots of land for the solid waste management factories, has now planning to ask the experts working on identification of technology to consider the option of smaller module or technology that can fit in small plots measuring around 50 acre.
A private consultant under the supervision of the Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Ltd is in the process of identifying the right technology among those of 31 multi-national companies that had expressed interest in supplying suitable technology to the Chennai Corporation for its massive solid waste management initiative. The initiative includes remediation and scientific closure of the Perungudi and Kodungaiyur dumpyards. The request for proposal will be made after the suitable company is selected.
The Corporation officials will also study the technologies in other countries for facilitating private participation in solid waste management of the city.
The civic body's search for a sustainable world class technology came in the wake of the National Green Tribunal setting aside the environmental clearance granted by the Tamil Nadu government to the integrated solid waste management facility at Perungudi.
The earlier proposal that includes the design of a scalable and modular plant with a future capacity of processing 10,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day may be tweaked to cope with the new challenge of small land parcels on the outskirts.
The civic body now generates over 4,600 tonnes of municipal solid waste on a daily basis. Nearly 10 sites across the 426 sq km area have large amounts of garbage accumulated due to dumping.
