KOCHI: After prolonged delay and several futile exercises, Kochi’s infamous Brahmapuram waste treatment plant is finally looking to clear up the mess. With the Kochi Corporation council set to approve the biomining of legacy waste and a new Waste to Energy (WTE) plant on Thursday, the facility’s revival looks likely.
The move comes in the wake of back-to-back ultimatums and penalties from National Green Tribunal (NGT), which will hear around half-a-dozen cases related to the ill-managed waste treatment plant on July 30. “The corporation council is going to approve the biomining process and the WTE plant proposal on Thursday. The corporation secretary will submit the ‘action taken report’ on Friday to the chief secretary. The reports will be submitted to the NGT. If we fail to abide by this timeline, the corporation will be liable for the mess created over the years,” said Kochi Corporation Mayor M Anilkumar. Since taking charge, the new council has entrusted NIT Calicut to assess the biomining of legacy waste.
“A fine of around Rs 19 crore has been imposed on the Kochi corporation by the central and state pollution control boards. Besides, several petitions are pending before the NGT and Kerala High Court on various cases related to the Brahmapuram plant. We have been postponing the issue over the years and facing penalties. Besides continuing pollution, fire outbreaks occurred several times. We are answerable to the public and we’ve decided to go ahead with the biomining based on the NIT-C report,” he said. WTE plant procedures will also be approved at the meeting.
“We should quickly take a call on how we’re going to maintain the Brahmapuram plant in the future. There needs to be a clear-cut process of scientific disposal of waste, starting right from the households. We need to devise a proper mechanism and start off well this time,” added the mayor.
Pollution control board officials will intimate the developments to the NGT. “As the Kochi corporation has formulated a clear proposal for biomining of legacy waste, we will inform the same to NGT. However, three stay orders are pending on the waste treatment plant. First is the prosecution’s stay order in 2016, second is the order to pay the performance guarantee in 2018 and the final one is the Rs 14-crore environmental compensation stay order announced last year.
Considering these orders, we haven’t initiated the prosecution procedures yet. We hope the new steps will not face any legal issues,” said a PCB official. The PCB demands action against all local bodies which have been using the plant all these years. “The current facility is used by the corporation, five municipalities and three panchayats.
As it is not fully functional, the action on violations should be extended to all these local bodies,” said the official. State Chief Secretary V P Joy will convene a meeting of all stakeholders on July 28 to ascertain the decisions before apprising the NGT. Earlier, the government had decided to lease out 22 acres to the private partner with the right to mortgage the land in the proposed WTE plant on a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Biomining rolls on
The biomining of legacy waste at the Brahmapuram yard is expected to cost the Kochi corporation about C71 crore. The state government has asked the corporation to issue the work order to Bengaluru-based Zonta Infratech Pvt Ltd. Earlier, the firm had quoted Rs 54.9 crore for treating about 4.75 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste and revised it after NIT Calicut submitted a detailed report. After the biomining process, the entrusted firm will recover the entire area by levelling it to the maximum extent and get a flat land for future use.
Onwards
The new council has entrusted NIT Calicut to assess the biomining of legacy waste
Several petitions are pending before the NGT and Kerala High Court on cases related to the plant
PCB demands action against all local bodies which have been using the plant
Rs 19 cr
Fine imposed on the Kochi corporation by the central and state pollution control boards
Rs 71 cr Cost biomining the legacy waste
Following the meeting of various stakeholders convened by District Collector Jafar Malik, the Kochi corporation is all set to fast-track the biomining of legacy waste at the Brahmapuram treatment plant