BBMP plans five plants to process construction debris

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The civic body has decided to set up five waste processing units across the city to deal with construction and demolition waste (C&D) under the public-private partnership. However, sources in the existing plants claim they get only a fraction of their capacity.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) claims it has been struggling to clear construction and demolition residue across the city. BBMP's designated construction and debris waste processing plants are located in Chikkajala and Kannur.

According to a senior Benagluru Solid waste Management Limited (BSWML) official, as the units are based at one point in the city, it leads to a hike in transportation costs and discourages people from carting the debris to these plants. Now the plan is to have smaller units spread across the city to make it more accessible for the people. They feel this will increase compliance.

However, a worker from the unit set up under the PPP model said that they barely receive 10 percent of the processing capacity and while the BBMP estimates a production of 2,500 tonnes of C&D waste, only 100-200 tonnes reach the plant in a day.

Sandhya Narayan, member of the Solid Waste Management Round Table, said it is important to verify and know about the submissions of the waste and how it is being disposed of. There is barely any track record to do cross examinations.

The new plan will certainly bring down transportation costs, but nothing can be under operation clearly until unless the officials plan on fixing the gaps that exist in the collection and transportation of C&D waste.

BBMP says that they cannot guard all the roads at all the given time and people usually dump the waste late at late night and wherever they want. Marshals on duty have made note of this and penalized people who have been dumping their garbage at lake beds, poorly-lit roads and vacant plots.