Coimbatore Corporation has planned to treat the legacy waste – degradable and non-degradable waste that has accumulated over the years – that remains dumped at its compost yard in Vellalore.
The Corporation officials said they have forwarded a proposal to the State Government’ s high-powered committee, tasked with clearing Smart Cities project proposal, to approve of the project estimated to cost nearly ₹100 crore.
If the Committee were to sanction the project, the Corporation would take up work to clear the nearly 11 lakh tonnes of mixed waste spread over 80 acres at its 654-acre Vellalore dump yard.
It would sieve and segregate the waste into degradable, recyclable and non-degradable waste using the biomining process, use the organic degraded waste as landfill material, send the recyclable waste to recycling vendors and sell the non-degradable materials as refuse-derived fuel.
The Corporation had chosen to take up the project based on instructions from the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration that had tasted success in a similar project implemented in Kumbakonam Municipality.
The Corporation, as per the Commissionerate's guideline, has to pay a little over ₹600 for a cubic metre of the waste and, this worked to around ₹95 crore. The time taken to process the accumulated waste would be two to three years.
The sources also said that the legacy waste that remained in Vellalore was the unprocessed part of the daily waste that the city generated. The Corporation had been dumping the waste – nearly 500 tonnes a day – for over 10 years.
Once the Corporation completed the project, it could reclaim the 80 acre, which it required for a number of projects that were coming up near Vellalore – the sewage treatment plant for the Kurichi-Kuniamuthur underground drainage scheme, bus port, etc.
After processing the waste, the Corporation would also develop a green fence around the area to improve the hygiene, the officials added.