Corporation to close Athipattu, Pallikaranai dump yards
The comparatively smaller dump yards in Athipattu and Pallikaranai will also go through remediation and scientific closure along with the two toxic landfills in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi. The international consultant, IPE Global, has completed studying the dumping grounds, tested samples and submitted a draft of the detailed project report to Greater Chennai Corporation. The final report will offer feasibility studies for various sustainable waste management initiatives and technical methods to close the landfills.
“We will invite global tenders to install waste-to energy plants in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi next,” said corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan. Once all the dump yards are shut, source segregation will be rolled out as mandated by solid waste management rules, 2016 by the ministry of environment and forests. The corporation announced it was stopping dumping in Pallikaranai in 2012.
Athipattu is where the erstwhile Ambattur municipality used to dump its waste before coming under the city corporation. “It is being used only as a transfer site now,” said a senior official form the solid waste management department. “Every day we take out the garbage collected in Athipattu and transport approximately 350 tonnes to Kodungaiyur.” For this, the local body has been spending close to Rs. 4 crore annually since 2013. An intergrated solid waste management facility will come up in Perungudi which will have a plant to recycle construction and demolition waste.
The civic body recently earmarked 15 areas in each zone of the city for construction debris to be dumped and introduced a penalty for those found dumping garbage in other places. The corporation first announced the closure of landfills in 2012, but revision of rules by the ministry last year gave the plans an impetus. The corporation has been chairing various meetings on climate change with a foremost agenda of dealing with more than 8,000 tonnes of garbage that Chennai generates every day . Last week, the civic chief also attended the C40 Dubai Adaptation Conference. It was last year that Chennai had joined the C40 network of megacities across the world committed to fight climate change.