The State budget presented on Friday tries to find a solution to a major problem – solid waste management, including dumping – plaguing the city for long at a cost of nearly ₹7,000 crore.
The government will accord sanction for the comprehensive solid waste management project for the Greater Chennai Corporation shortly, said Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, in the budget speech.
Administrative sanction has already been accorded for collection and transportation of solid waste in eight zones in two packages at a cost of ₹1,546.04 crore, he said.
According to civic body officials, this will be part of the move to privatise conservancy operations in all the eight zones in the added areas of the city. The new system would be based on performance indicators. The private operators are yet to be identified, the officials said. The project is hanging fire as the corporation workers are opposed to further privatisation of conservancy work. At present, conservancy work in three zones have been privatised.
Remediation and reclamation of existing landfills in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi dumps under the PPP (public private partnership) mode along with the setting up of waste-to-energy plants was under consideration of the government at a total cost of ₹5,259.10 crore. The government will accord sanction shortly, he said.
According to estimates by the Chennai Corporation, Kodungaiyur dump, located three metres above the mean sea level on an area of 257 acres, has 12 million cubic metre of waste, dumped over a period of 30 years.
After remediation and reclamation of the dumps, pollution in the residential neighbourhoods within one-km radius of the dumpyards is expected to reduce, officials said.
Similarly, Perungudi dumpyard, located on a 200-acre area and eight metre above mean sea level, has six million cubic metre of municipal solid waste.
As per a study conducted in 2016, the biodegradable waste dumped in Kodungaiyur is 52.4% of the total waste. Over 30.5% in Kodungaiyur is recyclable, 16.95% is inert and 0.195 is domestic hazardous waste. In Perungudi dumpyard, 52.7% of the waste is biodegradable, 31.5% recyclable, 15.6% inert and 0.17% domestic hazardous.
Excavation this year
During 2019-2020, the civic body would start excavation of the site and develop a temporary dumping ground in Kodungaiyur on 95.5 acres with a design capacity of 10.60 lakh tonnes.
A waste-to-energy plant will be developed with a design capacity of 32MW on 32 acres of the dumpyard, officials said.
In Perungudi dump also, the civic body would start excavation this fiscal and develop a temporary dumping ground on 63.7 acres with a design capacity of 9.85 lakh tonnes. A waste-to-energy plant will be developed with a design capacity of 30 MW on 28.8 acres.
In both places, a piggy-back engineered landfill and a sanitary landfill would also be developed.
Two decades project
The deferred annuity model for the project for reclamation and rehabilitation of Kodungaiyur and Perungudi dumpsites would have a construction period of four years and closure period of two years.
Post-closure, monitoring of the dumpsites would be carried out for 15 years.
