A plant to process construction and demolition waste, where the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will send such materials instead of dumping them in Dhapa, is scheduled to be inaugurated on Thursday.
The plant in New Town’s Patharghata could resolve a decades-old problem of how to dispose of the waste generated during construction or demolition of buildings or during repairs.
Residents and others can get their construction waste picked by the KMC for a fee. “In return for a fee, the civic body will pick up the waste and take it to the processing plant,” said Debabrata Majumdar, mayoral council member in charge of the solid waste management department of the KMC.
“This is the first such plant in the city and Bengal.”
Most of the construction and demolition waste generated in the city now is taken to Dhapa. Civic officials said a portion of the waste is used by unscrupulous people to fill water bodies.
The waste is also used to fill potholes on roads.
Construction and demolition waste includes bricks, cement, mortar, sand and concrete. Iron reinforcements will not be sent to the plant.
“The plant will be able to process 500 tonnes of construction and demolition waste every day. Till now, we were dumping the waste in Dhapa. After the plant starts functioning, the waste will be taken to it for processing,” said Majumdar.
Paver blocks, bricks, kerb stones and some road construction materials can be made from the waste, said Majumdar. “At the moment, the private company that built the plant will focus on making paver blocks,” he said.
Majumdar said the KMC can buy the paver blocks, which are used to pave footpaths, from the company. There is a demand for paver blocks as many large apartment complexes use them to build common walking areas.
The KMC will pay the company — Hyderabad Integrated MSW Private Limited — Rs 369 per tonne of waste. The company will operate and maintain the plant for 10 years.
A KMC official said the civic body will pay around Rs 50.35 crore over the next 10 years for processing waste.
“There is a hidden cost of air pollution caused by construction and demolition. There are other environmental costs, too. Such plants will reduce those costs,” the official said. “We will, in turn, take a fee from residents for collecting their construction waste and ferrying it to the plant.”
Even large construction sites have few options now to dispose of waste other than to send it to landfill sites such as Dhapa.
A senior KMC official said 15 Indian cities including Delhi, Surat, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Tirupati and Indore have plants that process construction and demolition waste.
The processing will reduce the volume of waste going to Dhapa and increase its lifespan. Only the waste that cannot be recycled will be sent to Dhapa.
Homoeopathic clinic in the Sunderbans
A homoeopathic clinic, set up in 1960 and which has operated from the same location for all these years, is opening a branch in South 24-Parganas’ Sonakhali on May 1.
Dr Prasanta Banerji Homeopathic Research Clinic, opposite Netaji Bhavan on Elgin Road, will open a branch in Sonakhali in the Sunderbans. This will be the first time that a branch of the clinic will be opened anywhere.
The Sonakhali clinic will be open on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from 10 am to 4 pm.
A team of doctors from the Elgin Road clinic will go to Sonakhali to examine patients.