HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is now stewing in its own juice with National Green Tribunal (NGT) and Supreme Court, making no bones about the need for bio-mining and bio-remediation in closing the Jawaharnagar dumping yard which means that Rs 150 crore spent by the civic body to seal it has more or less gone down the drain.
Having hit a judicial cul-de-sac, the GHMC is now getting ready to do as it has been asked - biomining and bio-remediation - for disposal of the legacy waste from the scientifically capped Jawaharnagar legacy dumpsite.
After the scientific capping works were completed by the GHMC, the NGT issued directions, which were later upheld by the Supreme Court this year, that it was imperative that the GHMC should take up bio-mining and bio-remediation in the interest of the environment and to save valuable scarce public resources in the form of land.
The land can be used for setting up integrated waste processing facilities and developing green belt or bio-diversity park. If the state or GHMC does not have funds, the State may consider monetising a part of the land to raise revenue for the purpose, after following due process of law. In any case, capping cannot be permitted, the NGT said which the Supreme Court upheld.
The GHMC officials told The New Indian Express that scientific capping was taken up as an immediate measure to address the pollution problems caused by smoke due to frequent incidents of fires and the uncontrolled flow of liquid with dissolved harmful substances known as leachate.
The capping activity was aimed to stop the intrusion of stormwater into the waste mass.Though taking up the bio-mining and bio-remediation is a challenging task, GHMC has invited requests for proposals from agencies having expertise in bio-mining and bio-remediation methods.
The process now will involve removal of various layers of the dump capping, disposal of recovered materials with appropriate disposal certificates, disposal of residual solid wastes into engineered landfill, construction of leachate treatment plant for leachate management and gas management.
It is estimated to take three years from the date of signing of the agreement including initial three months for site preparation, mobilisation of men and machinery.