In the wake of a proposal to build an integrated bus stand at Panchapur on Tiruchi-Madurai highway on the outskirts of the city, the Tiruchi Corporation has decided to suspend its plan to revamp the Panjapur sewage treatment plant (STP).

The Corporation constructed the 87 MLD plant as part of phase-I of the underground drainage project on a vast tract of its land in 1995. After processing, the treated sewage water is being let into the open land which was made as waste stabilisation ponds.

However, out of the 87 MLD, the Corporation used only a portion of the land to process 57 MLD of sewage water. Another portion of the land remains unused.

With the idea of bringing the unused land to use, the Corporation prepared a plan. Since the unused land is needed to be modified in accordance with the waste stabilisation pond method, it began the task of establishing the required infrastructure in January this year. It was one of the components of phase-II underground drainage project being under implementation in different parts of the city.

It is learnt that the work has been stopped with immediate effect following the State government’s proposal to build an integrated bus stand here. The civic body owns about 570 acres of land in Panchapur. About one fourth of the land is being used for re-using the treated water from the sewage treatment plant. The Corporation plans to allot at least 50 acres of land for building the bus stand with all modern facilities. The move to stop the modification of unused land into waste stabilisation ponds is to enable the authorities to shortlist a suitable site for the bus stand project.

“We are in the process of finding the best possible site for the bus stand. Hence, we have decided to stop the process to set up waste stablisation ponds,” says a senior corporation official. After a detailed study, the sewage treatment plant for the phase-II UGD project would be moved to a remote location of 570 acres of the land at Panchapur, the official added.