Chandigarh, March 1
With its sanitary landfill site near completion, Chandigarh is ready to become the first city in India to fully implement the provisions of Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 2000.
Once operational, there will be a full arrangement here to cap, cover and close the existing landfill site and develop parks and playgrounds instead. The site will allow for future disposal of inerts and rejects from the garbage-processing plant being developed across the dumping ground in Dadumajra by Jaypee Group. It will also control the emanation of dangerous gases which, if prevented from entering the atmosphere, will help Chandigarh earn precious carbon credits. The project — pilot in nature — has been allotted by the Central Pollution Control Board to Chandigarh as a demonstration project to be replicated across India; its cost is Rs 8 crore.
As of now, Chandigarh produces 350 tonnes of garbage daily; 10 per cent of it is inerts. Medical officer health Dr G.C. Bansal said 15 per cent of inerts are considered negligible when planning disposal. Already the MC is sprinkling at the existing site a sanitiser named ‘Effective Micronutrient Organism Solution’ which controls foul odour, fly menace and the volume of gasses discharged from the dumping ground.
Mayor Pradeep Chhabra along with area councillor Kamlesh and some others today visited the location of the landfill site and Garbage Processing Plant being developed by the Jaypee group in public-private partnership. The plant, located along the road across the dumping site in Dadumajra, will produce Refused Derived Fuel (RDF).
During the visit of elected representatives to the site, Bansal explained the process of conversion of municipal solid waste into RDF. He said civil construction works, buildings and sheds at the plant have been completed. All imported and Indian components and equipments required in the setting up of the plant have been received and installed and have been trial-tested by experts from Germany.
R.S. Sahota, vice-president of the company involved in the project, said the project will roll within one month of UT giving a an electricity connection. The garbage processing plant is designed to process the entire quantity of municipal solid waste generated in the city to produce fluff/pellets in an enclosed ambience and environmentally acceptable process.