VIJAYAWADA: With construction works picking up in Vijayawada after a brief lull in the last one-and-a-half-year, heaps of debris are being dumped indiscriminately on the roads causing severe inconvenience to the public.As such, residents complaints to the civic body’s grievance cell on the dumping of construction and demolition waste in their neighbourhood are on the rise. The dumping is especially seen on the city outskirts and vacant spaces in the newly-developed residential suburbs. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) had entrusted the task of setting up a debris recycling plant with the Bengaluru-based VVD Constructions, but there was no progress in works.
The civic body mooted the recycling plant project in the backdrop of June 2012 guidelines from the Urban Development Department (UDD), which suggested that cities with a population of 10 lakh and above, to setup construction and demolition (C&D) waste processing plant.A recent study conducted by the VMC estimated that Vijayawada produced around 50 to 70 tonnes of C&D waste every day.
“As the present day scenario suggests, the city is in need of a recycling plant for treatment of the C&D waste. Most big builders reuse the debris for levelling the land and other similar purposes. However, it’s the small projects in the unorganised sector that, so far, do not have a channel of organised processing. These plants will better serve such projects,” said A Siva Reddy, president of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India.
Commenting on the issue, VMC superintendent engineer JV Ramakrishna said the debris has increased over the period with increase in construction activities.“The civic body is determined to address the problem of indiscriminate dumping of construction debris and has allotted 3.5 acres of land in Ajit Singh Nagar dumping yard for setting up a debris recycling plant under Design Build Operate Transfer (DBOT) for a lease period of 15 years following the directions of Swachh Andhra Corporation,” he said.
The VMC had entered into an agreement with VVD Constructions in December 2017 to treat C&D waste in the city. The agency was supposed to start the works within three months after the agreement was signed, the VMC official said.
As per the agreement, the agency operating the plant should run transport services to collect construction waste within 48 hours of consumers booking a slot.However, the waste generators would have to bear the cost of transportation. As of now, the agency has completed levelling the allocated land and the plant would be commissioned by May-end, Ramakrishna added.
Still a long way to go
The VMC had entered into an agreement with VVD Constructions in December 2017 to treat C&D waste in the city. The agency was supposed to start the works within three months after the agreement was signed, the VMC official said. As per the agreement, the agency operating the plant should run transport services to collect construction waste within 48 hours of consumers booking a slot. However, the waste generators would have to bear the cost of transportation. As of now, the agency has completed levelling the allocated land and the plant would be commissioned by May-end.
Construction debris management
A recent study conducted by the VMC said the city produced 50 to 70 tonnes of construction and demolition waste every day
The VMC mooted a recycling plant project after UDD guidelines that suggested that cities with a population of 10 lakh and above to have a C&D waste processing plant
The civic body is determined to address the problem of indiscriminate dumping of construction debris and has allotted 3.5 acres of land for setting up a recycling plant, an official said.
Processing of construction waste
Soon after commissioning of the plant, the concrete part of the waste would be separated manually and also by using mechanised segregators. Magnetic separators would be used to separate metals. The concrete part of the waste would be crushed and used to make cement kerbs, hollow bricks or sands. The plastic and wood waste would be sent to waste-to-energy plants with metal being sold as scrap, thereby ensuring almost all waste gets recycled and reused.