TIRUCHY: With the city corporation recently awarding the contract for undertaking the second phase of biomining at Ariyamangalam dumpyard, preliminary work to assess the exact quantity of waste to be cleared is under way. The work is expected to be completed in a year, civic officials said. In the first phase of biomining, which is a process of clearing garbage through scientific recycling, waste over 7.6 lakh cubic metres was removed from the city’s largest dumpyard at a cost of about Rs 49 crore.
An emergency session held in May this year saw the corporation council sanctioning Rs 25.40 crore for the second phase of the project. On the second phase of biomining, a senior official said, "We are roughly expecting waste over 3.3 lakh cubic metres to be lying beneath the surface. The biomining team who took up the contract would undertake the preliminary works to assess the exact quantity of waste.
After that, it would commence work to clear it. We are expecting the team to complete work by August 2023." Officials said that they are assessing the progress of work and added that efforts are being taken to finish it at the earliest. "If there is heavy rainfall, it can affect the progress of work. But we set the deadline only after considering such factors. If everything goes as per the plan, the entire waste in Ariyamangalam would be cleared by next year," an official said.
On the project, N Shanmugham, a city resident, said, “In the past two years, there were no fire outbreaks at the dump yard during summer. Though the work that started off in 2019 faced some delay during the pandemic, the project has turned out to be a great relief for us as it stopped further dumping of waste in Ariyamangalam. It also stopped fire outbreaks.
We request the corporation to ensure completion of the project at the earliest." As per the current plan, after the completion of biomining the corporation would utilise the 47.7 acres of recovered land for planting native tree variety saplings. "The residents are also supporting it," an official said.