Solid waste management gets a boost in this budget as civic body plans to spend on modern technology such as unmanned vehicle to conduct surveys and study the Vellalore dump yard. The vehicle will be purchased at a cost of Rs 10 lakh.
Nearly Rs 17 crore will be spent this year for setting up a refuse derived fuel production plant and buy a bull dozer, fire tender and a drone for better management of waste at Vellalore dump yard. The unmanned vehicle was earlier used by a Swiss-based agency when they conducted a survey to find the extent of waste strewn across the dump yard.
A crawler-type bull dozer will also be purchased by the civic body to speed up land filling activity. “We generally hire or ask the Coimbatore integrated waste management company for it. But if we buy it ourselves, the process will be much faster,” said a senior corporation official.
The corporation will also purchase a fire tender at a cost of Rs 60 lakh after repeated incidents of fire were reported at the dump yard.
Nearly Rs 13.35 cr will be spent to procure and erect a refuse derived fuel production plant and machinery that will shred the waste into small particles and it would be dried. This shredded waste can either be used as fuel for cement industries or incinerated to derive energy from it. “We opted for setting up a RDF plant instead of a waste to energy first plant because effective functioning of the latter depends on a calorific value of the waste. But, once the waste is shredded, it can be easily converted into energy. Once the volume of the waste gets reduced considerably, fire incidents will also reduce,” said an official.
