The City Corporation decided to extend the contract with a private company for running the Njeliyanparambu waste processing plant by two years.
The decision was taken at a council meeting held here on Monday.
The Mumbai-based company ILFS (Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services limited) has been running the plant for the past five years.
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The contract with the company which took over the plant in June 2008, was set to expire in June this year.
As per the agreement, for the first year the payment will be the same as the existing royalty payment of Rs. 40,000 per month and for the second year, there will be an increase of ten per cent to this amount.
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Right of company
The company will have the right to run the plant until the commissioning of a new plant at Njeliyanparambu or until the Corporation finds a new agency to run the plant.
No arrangements
The Corporation had not made any alternate arrangement in view of the contract expiry as plans were afoot for a modern waste treatment plant in the location. However, a delay in the plan made it necessary to extend the contract.
The Corporation had requested the company to continue operations until the new plant is commissioned but the company insisted on a contract of at least 2 years.
No discussion
In the council meeting, the opposition councillors raised the issue that they did not get enough time to discuss the contract and that the subject reached the standing committee on health only after the Mayor had taken a decision on extending the contract.
They also said that the existing plant is of very low efficiency.
However, the ruling party councillors including the Deputy Mayor P.T. Abdul Latheef were of the opinion that the existing arrangement was satisfactory.