ROURKELA: In a significant development, the Rourkela city administration has shifted the unauthorised garbage dumping yard from near the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) campus to a new location at Tarkera.
From December 5, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) has officially stopped using the dump yard along the boundary wall of BPUT and started utilising the Tarkera site where a processing unit with associated infrastructure has been developed.
Over the past few decades, the RMC was illegally dumping waste on the vacant space between BPUT and Rourkela airport, ignoring public objection and notices from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board. The corporation was facing intense pressure to relocate the garbage dump site after the newly-constructed Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium on the BPUT campus started hosting international events from January 2023 onwards.
While bio-mining of the legacy waste was underway from 2022, the RMC was simultaneously dumping fresh garbage at the site in absence of alternate option. However, after a land parcel was recently provided by the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) at Tarkera, the corporation set up a waste processing centre along with associated infrastructure for segregation and processing of wet and dry garbage along with dumping of inert waste.
RMC commissioner Deenah Dastageer said the dump site from near BPUT has been shifted to the Tarkera facility. Bio-mining of legacy waste near the BPUT site is also nearing completion. The bio-methanation-cum-power generation plant at Sector 14 would become functional soon, she added.
The plant with five TPD capacity would help the RMC get rid of about five tonne of municipal organic waste daily, especially cattle dung, to help keep the city clean.
Incidentally, removal of legacy waste from near the BPUT site would also help the RMC reclaim about 25 acre of valuable land. The RMC has plans to clean and flatten the site for future use with residential or commercial purposes.