Work on temporary composting plant at Dadu Majra starts today

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, October 1

Finally, the work to set up a temporary composting plant to process the city’s wet waste will finally begin at Dadu Majra dumping ground on Monday.

From December onwards, the entire 374 metric tonnes of waste, produced by the city in a day, will get processed at this plant. At present, only up to 200 MT garbage gets processed. The remaining waste is being dumped at the Dadu Majra dumping ground, adding to the garbage mountain there.

“The work on setting up tin sheds and other construction will begin tomorrow. The plant will start operating in December,” said a Municipal Corporation official.

The civic body had, in August, allotted the work to Bhullar Constructions, Bathinda, for Rs 7.25 crore. The compost plant will be set up on 5 acres of reclaimed site at Dadu Majra. This plant will operate for two years or till the time a new waste processing plant is set up at the same site.

Permanent plant to be in place in 2 years

It will take two years to set up a permanent plant. Till then, unprocessed waste will keep piling up at the dumping ground. This will negate our efforts in clearing the legacy garbage. For the time being, this temporary plant will do the job. — MC official

The MC has already floated a request for proposal for the selection of concessionaire for the setting up of an integrated solid waste processing plant of 550 TPD capacity along with the operation and maintenance of the existing three garbage transfer stations (GTS) for 17 years (two years for plant construction and 15 years for operations and maintenance).

“Since it will take two years to set up a permanent plant once the work is allotted to some agency, unprocessed waste will keep piling up at the dumping ground. This will negate our efforts of clearing the legacy garbage through bioremediation. So for the time being, this temporary plant will do the job,” said the official.

Only about 7 acres of land is left to be cleared of garbage at the dumping ground. Of the total 25 acres on which work under phase II of the project is underway, garbage has been removed from 18 acres. The Rs 68-crore legacy waste biomining and land recovery project to process 7.67 lakh MT of garbage was launched in November last year.

Stopgap arrangement

• Rs 7.25 crore is cost of temporary composting plant being set up by Bhullar Constructions, Bathinda
• The plant is being set up at five acres of reclaimed land at the Dadu Majra dumping ground
• The plant will be operated for a period of two years or till the time a new plant comes up

Legacy garbage

• Of 25 acres on which work under project’s phase II is underway, waste removed from 18 acres
• Now, only about 7 acres of land is left to be cleared of garbage at Dadu Majra dumping ground
• Rs 68-crore legacy waste biomining and land recovery project to process 7.67 lakh MT of garbage kicked off in November