Madurai plans to produce green coal from waste

MADURAI: Taking a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi, Madurai corporation proposes to set up a plant that can convert municipal solid waste into torrefied (dried and environment friendly) charcoal at Vellaikal dumpyard.
Torrefied charcoal, which would appear like a cake, is similar to natural coal and can be blended with fuel in thermal power plants to produce electricity. This was revealed by mayor Indrani Ponvasanth in an interview to TOI on Wednesday. She said the proposal has been sent to the state government through finance minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.
"Currently, Varanasi municipal corporation is building such a facility which can produce green coal from municipal waste with the help of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Madurai will be the second city in the country to have it if the project gets approved by the state and central governments," she said. The mayor said the proposed plant would address the problem of segregating degradable and non-degradable waste, a major hurdle in municipal solid waste management.
"In this plant, we don't need to segregate waste manually as everything will be converted into biomass energy. The plant will help us move towards the goal of making the city clean," she said. The plant is expected to cost about Rs 160 crore. Other than the plant, the mayor considers constructing the Vandiyur park at the centre of Vandiyur tank within the next two years as a priority. To decongest Madurai, the four masi streets near Meenakshi Amman temple will be made no-parking zones. "All vehicles have to be parked inside the two multilevel parkings, one near the temple and other near the bus stand," she said. The corporation is also consulting State Highways department to construct a flyover at Aavin junction near Melamadai to decongest traffic.
On the revenue generated by the corporation, Indrani Ponvasanth said steps have been taken to collect taxes and increase the general fund with the corporation. "The corporation is currently collecting a total of '5 crore a day from all types of local taxation," she said. Top 100 tax defaulters have been identified in all 100 wards and deadlines have been given to pay the taxes, she added.