HYDERABAD: One step forward, two steps back, this aptly applies to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) when it comes to the commencement of four modern slaughter houses and a dry rendering plant in the city.
The four modern slaughter houses at Amberpet, Gowlipura, Ramnathapura and a dry rendering plant at Chengicherla were to start operations from March/April and at New Bhoiguda by May.
This was announced by GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar on February 28 during the two-day Mayor’s Conference organised by the National Meat and Poultry Processing Board (NMPPB), which functions under the ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI).
Unfortunately, no slaughter houses have commenced operations till date and it would take few more months for them to start. Meanwhile, illegal slaughtering of animals is going unabated in the city thanks to the indifferent attitude of GHMC.
GHMC officials told Express that the GHMC’s engineering wing is yet to hand over the slaughter houses to the health and sanitation wing for operation and maintenance.
The slaughter houses will take another one or two months for completion. Only after their completion, they will be handed over to H&S wing. The H&S wing will then carry out trial runs for at least three months before handing them over to private agencies on lease for operation and maintenance.
On few occasions, GHMC mayor M Majid Hussain expressed his disappointment over the slow progress of construction of the modern slaughter houses even after extension of deadlines several times.
GHMC is modernising these slaughter houses at a cost of Rs 69.24 crore including a rendering plant for solid waste treatment. The Amberpet slaughter house has been built at a cost of Rs 22.15 crore, New Bhoiguda (Rs 14.92 crore), Ramanastapura (Rs 8.61 crore), Gowlipura (Rs 4.38 crore), Chengicherla dry rendering plant (Rs 19.17 crore).
The modernisation was taken up as per the directions of the High Court. The fifth slaughter house at Jiyaguda was postponed to second phase due to late clearance from the Pollution Control Board.
GHMC will earn Rs 25 crore per annum as royalty by leasing out the slaughter houses to private companies.
It has entered into an agreement with various firms.
They include Amberpet and New Bhoiguda (M/s Fresh N Frozen Food Tech Consortiums Rs 10.29 crore and Rs 9.29 crore), Ramnathpura (M/s Al-Saad, Rs 5.19 crore) and Gowlipura (M/s Al-Nafees Frozen Food Exports Pvt.Ltd. Rs 20.12 lakh), officials added.