COIMBATORE: Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has revived the idea to set up a construction and demotion (C&D) waste processing and recycling plant five years after putting the plan on the back burner.
Speaking to TNIE, CCMC Commissioner Raja Gopal Sunkara said Coimbatore is eligible to get a recycling plant for processing the construction and demolition debris and later making other finished products like paver blocks, etc. from it. He said, “We recently received the draft guidelines for Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0. As there is a provision for a C&D waste recycling plant in Coimbatore, we will know the capital structure and the Central funding once the guidelines are finalised.”
The corporation had earlier planned to construct the facility on 15 acres in Ukkadam at an outlay of `12.5 crore under Solid Waste Management special fund. The project was announced in 2017, and preliminary works commenced after assigning the contract to a Chennai-based firm. While many a deadline had passed, sources said, the firm had failed to show any progress in the work. This forced the corporation to terminate the contract.
Similarly, the civic body in 2019 tried to go for a fresh tender and even make some of its officials visit a few cities to study the waste processing models implemented there. But, those initiatives were unsuccessful.
As per the project plan, the plant would process the waste into bricks, paver blocks and kerbstones. The finished products would be sold in the market and generate some revenue.
The CCMC Commissioner said the corporation would take up the project. “For now, we are awaiting the draft guidelines to be finalised.”