The Pirana dumpyard is 135-metre high and has nearly 70 lakh metric tonnes of garbage.
Amid heavy downpour, around 2,500 metric tonnes of garbage came sliding down from Pirana dumping site on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on Monday afternoon, on an adjoining road, burying two scooters, a car and an autorickshaw.
According to Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES), five JCB machines were pressed into service to clear the garbage from the road and it took three hours to recover the vehicles. “This happened at the sewage farm road which runs between the two huge mountains of dirt. Even on Saturday, there was a call about garbage sliding down on the road. The amount was small and was cleared immediately. But for this one we had to send five JCBs to clear the road,” said chief fire officer M F Dastoor.
The Pirana dumpyard is 135-metre high and has nearly 70 lakh metric tonnes of garbage. “When the garbage started falling on the road, people living in the nearby areas immediately rushed and helped those were stuck inside the heap of garbage,” said Rehazul Hassan, a telephone operator at the AFES control room.
Commenting on the possibility of such a situation happening again as the Met department has warned of more heavy rainfall in the next three days, Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar said, “Our team is on alert and keeping a close watch on Pirana dumpyard.”
Residents of Citizen Nagar complained lack of precautionary measures on the part of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) despite heavy rain alert issued by various authorities.
Already living under the threat of diseases and the stench emanating from the dumping site, the residents of the colony, located 2 km from the site of Monday’s incident, now fear of getting buried in the garbage slide.
