Bio-mining at the Perungudi garbage dumpyard in Chennai, will be completed by August 31, senior officials of the Chennai Corporation have said. A total of 35 lakh tonnes are amassed in the 225.16-acre yard.
Biomining reduces carbon dioxide emissions every year and will also help produce refuse-derived fuel (RDF) as an alternative to coal in cement factories, officials had earlier stated.
The ₹350 crore bio-mining project has been sanctioned under the Swachh Bharat Mission scheme, with administrative sanction secured vide a Government Order (G.O.) dated October 7, 2020.
Under the scheme, the waste has been segregated into six packages. Three packages have finished processing, but there is more work that needs to be done in the other three packages, which will be completed by August 31, a senior official with the solid waste management department said.
Another official added that once the project is completed, the Corporation plans to establish various processing facilities on the reclaimed land, including an eco-park, a bio-compressed natural gas (Bio-CNG) plant of 500 TPD (tonnes per day) capacity, a windrow compost yard of 500 TPD for wet waste processing and an Automated Material Recovery Facility of 1,200 TPD for dry waste.
It may be recalled that the establishment of the eco-park was opposed widely by the public, at a meeting that was held recently, on the grounds of its proximity to the Pallikaranai marshland.
Meanwhile, biomining has begun in Kodungaiyur dump yard as well, where the 66.52 lakh tonnes of legacy solid waste is split into six packages and will be processed at an estimated cost of ₹640.83 crore. The work is expected to be done over the next two years, the senior official said.
