Date:25/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/25/stories/2006052518930300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Corporation council to discuss compost plant

Staff Reporter

Kondgaiyur plant will convert organic waste into manure Exnora terms the outcome of the meeting as a `breakthrough'

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation is expected to press ahead with its plans for setting up a 500-tonne compost plant at the Kodungaiyur dumping ground to convert organic waste that the city discards everyday into manure. The subject is likely to be taken up when the Corporation council is convened on May 30.

The civic agency's first attempt for floating tenders in the project had failed because only one company had applied. Resident welfare groups in Kodungaiyur had also raised objections over the project. But at a meeting of senior officials with resident activists last month at the Secretariat, both sides agreed on what is best for the locality.

The residents' welfare group Exnora International that participated in the meeting claimed the outcome of the meeting as "a major breakthrough." The organisation had recently sent the minutes of the meeting, convened on April 27, to media organisations.

According to the minutes, the Chennai Corporation Commissioner had been asked to carry out further improvements in door-to-door collection of garbage, segregate recyclable waste at the household level itself, locate the mechanical compost plant in the rear end of the dumping ground to prevent problems for residents and take measures to prevent open burning of garbage.

It is now a question of whether the newly established DMK government would go ahead with the arrangement.

The city discards close to 3,200 tonnes of mixed garbage every day at the Kodungaiyur and Perungudi dumping grounds. The Municipal Solid Waste Handling Rules that was the outcome of a Supreme Court constituted committee in 2000 recommend segregation of waste into organic and inorganic waste at the household level itself. Composting of organic waste is expected to relieve the burden on the dumping ground.

Representatives of the Federation of North Chennai Residents Welfare Associations N.S. Ramachandra Rao and A. Pandurangan participated.