KOCHI: With frequent fires posing a threat at the Brahmapuram waste treatment plant, the Kochi corporation is gearing up to remove nearly five lakh cubic metres of legacy waste from the site. According to the financial bid submitted by the consortium of Zonta Infratech Pvt Ltd and Bauer GmbH, Germany, the corporation has to set aside C54.9 crore to treat the legacy waste piled up over the past seven years. “Biomining is the only solution to remove the waste dumped at the plant,” said Mayor M Anilkumar after visiting the plant on Wednesday.
He was accompanied by Deputy Mayor K A Ansiya, standing committee chairpersons and other officials. “KSIDC (Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation) has initiated a tender process to treat the waste. So far, we haven’t received the documents regarding this.
Once that is done, the council will unanimously decide to treat the waste,” he said. In a meeting held under Chief Secretary V P Joy, the government had clarified the corporation should take steps to remove the legacy waste through biomining. The chief secretary also directed the corporation to improve the collection of tax arrears to find funds for waste treatment.
“Now, the cash-strapped Kochi corporation is not in a position to bear such a huge amount to treat the legacy waste. Government support will be inevitable to go ahead with the project. Meanwhile, some petroleum companies have approached the corporation with proposals to generate biogas from the plant,” he said. He also said the National Green Tribunal’s direction to treat waste at source will be carried out. “The HEAL project launched last month was part of that. The health standing committee has been instructed to prepare a master plan for the plant,” he added.