The Vellankadu crematorium on New Avadi Road sprawls over 36,000 sq.ft. Until recently, this huge facility would often be plunged in darkness, despite having a high mast lamp with 26 lights and over a dozen street lights. Frequent power cuts in the neighbourhood are said to be the cause. When power cuts happened at critical times, authorities at the crematorium would resort to diesel-run generators.
Now, with the establishment of a biomethanation plant by Zone — 8 of Greater Chennai Corporation with the objective of generating electricity to power the lights at the crematorium, a solution to the long-festering problem seems to have been found. Kitchen waste gathered from the neighbourhood is processed at the bio-gas plant (which has the capacity to handle three tonnes of waste every day) to generate electricity.
“The electricity generated from the new bio-gas plant not only lights the high mast lamp and street lights on the premises of the crematorium, but is also used in cremating bodies (the facility receives around 450 bodies every month). Later, when more power is generated at the plant, it will be used to power the street lights in the neighbourhood,” says a Corporation official.
The Rs. 45 lakh project is funded and maintained by the civic body. The Mumbai-based Bhaba Atomic Research Centre is providing technical support.
A team of Corporation officials, including Corporation supervisor M. Muralidaran, conservancy inspector G. Murali, technical staff G. Suresh, and conservancy workers H. Sheela, and K. Gandaraj, is engaged in running the programme.
This team ensures the collected kitchen waste is used maximally so that considerable amount of power is generated.
“We are happy with this development, as earlier, walking along the stretch where the crematorium is located, would be scary due to the engulfing darkness,” says K. Raghavan, a resident in Anna Nagar.
At present, civic officials say, around 460 tonnes of waste is generated every day in areas under Zone-8 (Anna Nagar), which have around 1.65 lakh households. In Corporation Ward 101, where the crematorium is located, around 34 tonnes of waste is generated every day. Of these, three tonnes of kitchen waste are sourced from hotels and marriage halls to be used at the new bio-gas plant for generation of electricity. On an average, 3 tonnes of waste at the new plant can be used to illuminate 120 street lights with each bulb having a capacity of 250 volts, for 12 hours.
Interestingly, Corporation officials said Anna Nagar is the third neighbourhood where a bio-gas initiative by the civic agency of this nature is running successfully. The other two neighbourhoods are Pulianthope and Otteri. The civic body has planned to introduce at least one such plant in each of these 15 zones to reduce the amount of garbage going to the landfills in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi.
However, due to space crunch, especially in the other zones, the civic body has managed to run only three plants, with the fourth one under construction in Ambattur.
