After staring at the possibility of running out of land to dump waste in Vellalore, the Coimbatore Corporation has now retrieved 16 acres.
Corporation Commissioner Raja Gopal Sunkara said the civic body managed to retrieve the 16 acres after it processed 3.2 lakh cubic metre waste through biomining process, starting May 2020.
Under the Smart Cities Mission, the Corporation had started the process at ₹ 60.11 crore to clear 9.4 lakh cubic metre waste that was spread over 60-plus acre.
The Corporation had dumped the waste – in unsegregated form – over the last 10 years. The total waste dumped there was spread over 128 of the 650 acre in Vellalore and the Corporation, through the biomining process, was looking at clearing only 50% of the accumulated waste, the sources said.
The civic body had given on contract the biomining process to a Chennai-based private company asking it to complete the process within two years. And, it had also engaged Anna University, Chennai, as the third-party consultant to not only oversee the process but also certify the process.
Only upon the University’s certification the Corporation would pay the company, the sources explained.
The company started the process after a delay due to procedural issues that included getting power connection and later had a slow start due to the COVID-19 pandemic restriction. Though the company had made considerable progress in the recent past, it could not clear all the waste within the two years the Corporation had mandated and had sought extension.
The company after drying the waste to process, took it a conveyer belt where it went over sieves with filters of three different sizes and at the end of the process the waste was divided into refuse derived fuel - to be sold to cement manufacturing companies, coarse soil – to be used as landfill, and fine soil – to be sold as manure.
The Corporation sources said the retrieval of 16 acre was a significant milestone and very soon the Corporation would look at planting saplings on the land to improve green cover in Vellalore yard.
The sources also said the Corporation was also looking at projects to process the waste that fell outside the scope of the biomining process.
