Preparation of feasibility report for Kodungaiyur bio-mining begins

Only a few days after the state government announced Rs 5,500 crore bio-mining project to reclaim the land in Kodungaiyur dumping yard, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has commenced the process of preparing a feasibility report.

The civic body officials held a meeting with the officials of Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited (TNUIFSL) and a private consultant about the preparation of the report. A few months ago, the civic body floated tenders to prepare the report to appoint a consultant to study the dumping yard.

“During discussions, consultants have been asked to study environmental impact and prepare an estimation. A request for proposal (RfP) was floated in September inviting private consultants to prepare a feasibility report. However, the RfP elicited a poor response. Another RfP was floated in November,” an official explained.

In the state budget, the government has announced that an amount of Rs 5,465 crore has been provided for this purpose, which includes the state share of Rs 2,169 crore. The remaining amount will be sourced from Swachh Bharat 2.0.

Kodungaiyur dumping yard in north Chennai spreads over 157.5 acres and waste has been dumped at the site for more than 30 years. On average, 2,000-2,200 tonnes of waste are dumped at the site per day. So, that’s an estimated 64.01 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste.

Plants to process construction waste and bio-CNG plants have been proposed in the dumping yard once the bio-mining is completed.

The civic body had already completed bio-mining in the Pallikaranai dumping yard recently by removing legacy waste. The land has been handed over to the civic body by the contractor. A similar project has been started in the Perungudi dumping yard a few months ago.