CHENNAI: After much delay, the City corporation finalised the construction and demolition waste contract on Wednesday, under which, 800 metric tonnes of the debris waste will be processed at two units in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi.
Scrapping their earlier idea to procure machinery for the purpose, they opted for the Public Private Partnership model and only have to pay the tipping fees to the private party now. Once processed, the company will sell the recycled waste in the market.
The city generates about 3,000 metric tonnes of construction and demolition waste per day. Nearly 60% of the waste has its own market while the rest of it ends up in landfills.
“We witness about 1,000 MT of waste everyday and 800 of it will be processed now. While the waste from zones 1 to 8 will be sent to Kodungaiyur, the rest will go to Perungudi. The units are expected to begin processing the waste within eight to 10 months,” said a city corporation official from the Solid Waste department.
The civic body will pay `650 as tipping fees per metric tonne to the private company and bear the transportation charges, while the rest of the expenses will be handled by the private firm.
The public must dispose construction waste in 15 designated spots of the corporation in each ward, from where the corporation workmen will transport it to the waste processing unit. According to official records, nearly Rs 2 crore fine has been collected for illegally dumping C&D waste, since 2017. Also, more than 2,500 illegal dump sites have been identified.
Citing the reason for this, P Ramakrishnan, an environmentalist in the city said, “The fine is lesser compared to the amount charged to remove waste. About Rs 1,500 is charged per tonne and the fine too comes up to this amount only. This creates an indifference to the issue. Also, most people are unaware about the designated spots or fines.”
According to the norms, whenever a building is demolished, the civic body charges `110 per square metre for demolition and the owner is responsible for clearance.
The civic body officials said they are hoping to get some of recycled construction waste and utilise it in the upcoming infrastructure projects