The biomining project at Kannadapalayam landfill is likely to kick off by the end of this month, after a delay that has lasted nearly two years.
The Tambaram Municipality had proposed the biomining project in 2017, after years of campaigning by the local residents and after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) pulled up the civic body and imposed a fine of ₹5 lakh on it for not taking efforts to clear the garbage from the dumping ground.
However, the project did not take off. An official from the Tambaram Municipality said that technical difficulties in renting patta lands surrounding the landfill, to set up the biomining plant, caused the delay. “There was a need for land to set up the machineries for the biomining project. However, there were difficulties in renting the land. We have sorted out the issue now and the plant will be set up by the end of this month by the contractor,” he added.
The landfill presently has more than one lakh tonnes of garbage dumped in it and on an average, 100 tonnes of garbage are generated from the 39 wards within the Tambaram Municipality limits.
The official said the project cost would be ₹7.65 crore and added that once the garbage was removed from the dumping ground, the site would either be converted into a training centre or a scientific park. The civic body was yet to take a decision on it, he said.
Nagesh Prabhu, director of Zigma Global Environ Solutions, to whom the biomining contract has been awarded said that the machinery required to carry out biomining were getting ready in Coimbatore and the plant would be set up at Kannadapalayam by next week. “The establishment of the plant, commissioning and trial runs will take about three months, following which the segregation of waste will begin. The entire volume of garbage will be bio-mined in the next one year,” he added.
Residents hoped that this time, the project would progress without any further delay.
“The dumping ground has been an eyesore of the neighbourhood for years. Several resident associations campaigned hard and fought for the trash to be removed as it was causing a lot of health and hygiene issues. We had to keep our doors and windows closed due to the stench from the dumping ground. It was worse during the rainy season,” said a resident of West Tambaram, who urged the Municipality to complete the project on time.
