The city’s solid waste management capacity and handling of construction and demolition debris is set to be augmented with the approval of new plants which will shore up its cleanliness quotient.
The legacy waste of nearly 3 lakh tones accumulated at the Sewage Farm in Vidyaranyapuram that has emerged as an eyesore dragging the city’s overall ranking under Swachh Bharat survey, is also set to be addressed in due course.
This was stated by the outgoing Mayor Sunanda Palanetra – whose tenure ends on Thursday - and Lakshmikanth Reddy, Commissioner, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) here on Thursday.
Mysuru generates nearly 500 tonnes of garbage daily and the capacity of the sewage farm plant is just about 250 tonnes while about 50 tonnes is handled by the zero waste management plants. But the remaining garbage continues to pile up as the legacy waste that is pegged at 3 lakh tonnes.
But the works on two treatment plants – one at Rayanakere with a capacity to treat 150 tonnes and another at Kesare with a capacity to handle 200 tonnes - has already commenced and would address the city’s garbage woes.
Ms. Palanetra said the work on Kesare plant will be completed by the end of April while the Rayanakere plant will be ready by June. Besides, the MCC has identified 75 black spots where garbage tends to get dumped and these will be cleaned and developed, she added.
Similarly, the legacy waste would be treated through biomining or bioremediation and the tenders were being subjected to technical analysis. Once completed the work on the ₹14 crore project will get started and help shore up Mysuru’s ranking under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
The MCC Commissioner said even the government expressed its concern over the drop in Mysuru’s overall ranking under Swachh Bharat survey and this was attributed to the issues related to garbage handling.
While Mysuru’s garbage segregation at source was commendable, there were issues related to transportation and funds have been released to procure additional vehicles and compactors so as to cover all the 65 wards in the MCC limits, said Mr. Reddy. In addition, there will be vehicles to ferry waste in each ward of the MCC all of which will help Mysuru to improve its overall rankings in the future editions of Swachh Survekshan, he added.
Ms. Palanetra, whose tenure lasted exactly 6 months, said many works executed during her stint has given her satisfaction and in addition to the above mentioned works, the MCC had also improved its revenue mobilisation through property tax and water charges. The MCC has mopped up ₹58 crore till Wednesday by way of water charges which was higher by 40 per cent compared to last year. Similarly, the revenue mobilised through property tax was ₹147.16 crore as on February 23, 2020, an increase of 35 per cent compared to last year, she added.
