INDORE: More than 6,500 kg of toxic waste from Bhopal's defunct Union Carbide factory has been incinerated under the third phase of trial incineration in Pithampur industrial area, Madhya Pradesh officials said on Tuesday.
As part of the plan to dispose of a total of 337 tonnes of waste from Union Carbide factory, the site of the 1984 industrial disaster, the hazardous material was on January 2 transported to a waste disposal plant operated by a private company in Pithampur in Dhar district, about 250 km from the state capital.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed for the trial incineration of the waste to be conducted in three phases in strict adherence to safety norms.
It had also asked the authorities to submit a report on March 27.
Giving details of incineration in the third phase of the trial, an official said, "The feeding of waste (into incinerator) began at 7.41 pm on March 10 at the feed rate of 270 kilograms per hour.By 8 pm on March 11, a total of 6,570 kilograms of waste was incinerated."
Emissions during the process are being monitored through Online Continuous Emission Monitoring System (OCEMS), and so far they are within prescribed limits, he said.
Air quality was found to be meeting prescribed standards in surrounding Tarpura, Chirakhan and Bajrangpura villages, the official said.
The first round of incineration of 10 tonnes of Union Carbide waste began on February 28 and ended on March 3, lasting for about 75 hours, during which 135 kg of waste was fed to the plant's incinerator every hour, he said.
In the second round of the trial, the waste was disposed of at a rate of 180 kg per hour. The second round ended on March 8.
On the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, highly toxic Methyl Isocyanate gas leaked from Union Carbide's pesticide factory in Bhopal.
At least 5,479 people were killed and thousands of others suffered injuries and long-term health consequences due to the leaked gas.
After the waste from the factory was brought to Pithampur in January, there were protests with some local organisations claiming that the disposal would harm the population in the surrounding area and the environment.
However, the state government assured that the disposal would be carried out in a safe manner.