GHMC’s baby steps towards handling the city’s construction and demolition waste could soon reach their fruition in the form of the first-ever C&D waste processing plant in the southern part of India.
The plant under construction at Jeedimetla, which has been going through trial runs for the past three months, is racing towards its formal launch. Officials at the site informed that it could be inaugurated in a month’s time.
“We have been asked to construct a shed for the machine, and complete the approach road. Then, the plant could start functioning officially,” informed A. Satya, the plant head from Ramky Enviro Engineers, the private agency to which the work has been awarded.
A media contingent taken on tour of the 17-acre site on Friday found copious amount of debris has been used to fill in the empty quarry pits on the premises. Besides, the debris and its recycled products have been used to level the ground, pave them, and also to demarcate the site boundaries.
A small stretch of concrete approach road which has been completed, used the recycled material as its base. Prefabricated compound wall segments and paver blocks were being produced at a small shed erected a little away from the huge plant imported from Germany. Compound wall around the site was built using the same prefab segments, officials informed.
Collection and transport of the C&D waste had begun in January 2018, and so far, a total of 7.4 lakh tonnes of waste has been collected and stored at four sites, respectively in Jeedimetla, Fathullaguda, Mallapur and Kotwalguda. Jeedimetla alone has received 2.18 lakh tonnes.
Though four sites have been zeroed in, plants are being set up only at two locations, namely Jeedimetla and Fathullaguda. At the remaining locations, there are issues with the sites, officials said. Jawahar Nagar is being considered as an alternative location for Mallapur.
What the actual plant does is simple. It receives the debris, segregates them, crushes them and sieves them in three stages, to produce four kinds of material -- road metal over 60mm in thickness, road metal less than 60 mm, fine sand and coarse sand.
Water being sprayed during the process prevents dust pollution. Used water is being recycled owing to the TSPCB’s stipulation that use of fresh water should be restricted to 7% of the total.
The plant could process 50 tonnes of debris per hour, and the production has been restricted to 15 hours by TSPCB.
Marketing of the recycled material could prove difficult as there are misapprehensions about their quality, says the Executive Engineer (Solid Waste Management), GHMC, Srinivas Reddy. The point that they are 25% lower in cost could improve their chances.
“The material cannot be used for heavy load bearing structures, but can be used without hesitation as base material for roads,” Mr. Srinivas Reddy says.
Mr.Satya vouches that the fine recycled sand is better in application than robo sand, though inferior to river sand.
