City corporation to get site soon for dumping construction debris

Proposal submitted to pollution control panel

Lack of government-approved sites for dumping construction debris has resulted in builders and contractors dumping them on the sides of roads and highways. —File Photo: H.S. Manjunath

The Port City will have separate sites for dumping construction debris if Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) gives its green signal to two sites identified by the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) for the purpose. Of them, the KSPCB is likely to approve a site.

Prakash B Salian, chairman, Standing Committee of Public Health, Education and Social Justice, told The Hindu that the civic body had identified two abandoned quarries at Kunajthbail and at Adyar for it. The site at Kunjathbail was spread out on about three acres and would be enough for dumping debris for the next 15 years. The site at Adyar was spread on about four acres.

Both the sites are private ones. The proposal was awaiting approval from the KSPCB.

Rajashekar Puranik, Environment Officer, KSPCB, said that the office here had forwarded the proposal to the head office after recommending that a site could be used for the purpose. Another site was not best suited for it. The Board would have to take the final decision.

Mr. Salian said that after getting the approval the corporation would have to build roads to the sites, install closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) and press into service earth movers for levelling the debris.

Lack of government-approved sites for dumping construction debris has resulted in builders and contractors dumping them on the sides of roads and highways in the city. Dumping of such debris had emerged as a menace.

Mr. Salian said that the corporation was also thinking of purchasing a shredding machine for its compost plant at Pachchanady. Its objective is to shred coconut shells and timber collected at the plant. Briquettes could be made from their pieces. The corporation was planning to manufacture briquettes under public-private-partnership. Briquettes are in good demand in the market.

The chairman said that the corporation was also examining the possibility of manufacturing fish food from chicken waste collected in the city.

A firm in Chikkamagaluru was doing it now. It would also examine whether any other animal food could be manufactured from chicken waste.

The two steps would be to minimise accumulation of garbage at Pachchanady and recycle some materials in garbage collected in city.