Even as garbage mounds remain uncleared at Mavallipura and Mandur, officials of Terra Firma Biotechnologies (TFB), seemed to be presenting a rosy picture to High Court Justice N Kumar and BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana on Sunday.
Justice N Kumar, after visiting the 100-acre landfill site near Doddballabpur, told Palike officials that more waste could be dumped and processed here. He said, “The area is spacious and unlike other landfills, there are not many villages around. Hence, waste from the city can be brought here. TFB, which is managing the trash, is working efficiently.”
TFB CMD Dr R Ganesh said degradable substances like plants, dry leaves, vegetables, sand and mud were all collected and dumped separately. These were also sprayed with specially cultured bacteria that will reduce the garbage to one third of its size. The plant provides employment to over 200 villagers. The leachate generated from liquids in waste here is stored in three tanks and another 10 tanks would be installed, Ganesh said. “Electricity generated from the existing plant is used here and up to five villages can get power if all the leachate tanks are completed. About 600 houses are getting treated water here,” Ganesh added.
The officials maintained that the plants set up at the landfill can process 1,000 tonnes of waste per day. However, they are receiving just 450 tonnes of waste per day. Laxminarayana said the quantity of waste will be increased from 450 tonnes to 750 tonnes in the coming days.
“We have more than 20 machines for processing waste. The plastics processed are used as agricultural pipes and other purposes. Each tonne of processed plastic is sold at `18,000 here,” Ganesh said.
The latter, however, complained to Justice Kumar that there were old grievances relating to pending payments and need for qualified engineers.