CIVIC OFFICIALS CAMP IN DELHI TO GET ECO NOD

Published Date: 11/5/2009 - (NIE)

By G Saravanan

Chennai, November 4: FEARING the likelihood of the much-publicised integrated municipal waste processing facility at Kodungaiyur dumping yard getting further delayed, senior officials from the Chennai Corporation are visiting New Delhi to ‘push forward’ their case with the Central Pollution Control Board for the permission to operate such facility.

According to sources, the TN Pollution Control Board which was assessing the civic body’s project proposal and its environmental impact ‘for the past one year’ now forwarded the Corporation’s application to Central Environmental Committee, under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for its approval.

The agency said that the proposed facility is falling inside the 10-km radius of the critically- polluted Manali industrial area. Hence the civic body has to get permission from the central office in New Delhi. While the proposal is now in New Delhi for a final approval, top brass of the civic body had rushed a chief engineer on Wednesday to the capital to ensure that the prestigious project was approved on time.

Besides, Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni is also gearing up to submit a detailed presentation to the Central Environmental Committee insisting that the facility on completion would reduce the pollution level in and around Kodungaiyur dumping yard.

Once the permission to start the facility in the existing area is granted, it would only help the Corporation to reduce its accumulated garbage heaps and there will not be any environmental hazard because of the project, sources say. The city generates an average waste of 3600 tonne of garbage daily. Neel Metal Fanalca and the Corporation dump them at Perungudi and Kodungaiyur without any scientific treatment of the waste.