The civic body gets sanction for the construction and debris recycling plant from the state government. Officials said that they would call for tenders for the project in a few weeks' time. This plant is estimated to cost Rs9 crore and will have a capacity of 200 tonnes.
As per the civic body, the city produces at least 100 tonnes of construction debris on a daily basis. Currently, this is being dumped at empty sites or near lakes illegally. The corporation had sanctioned locations where the companies could dump the waste but construction companies and private players continue to dump the debris illegally. "This plant would ensure that all the construction debris is not only dumped legally but also recycled," said an engineer, in charge of the project. The official added that the state government had asked for a few corrections in the project and they would issue the government order in a days' time. "Because of the current employee strike, the process is getting delayed. Once the GO is passed, we would immediately call for tenders," said the official.
The plant will be set up at 100acres land near Vellalore dump yard. "As per our previous proposal, the corporation was supposed to manage the plant. But the government wanted us to set it up in private public partnership (PPP) mode. The company that is awarded the tender will have to construct the plant and also maintain it for 20 years. We were also asked to reduce the infrastructure cost and reduce the estimate. The plant was initially estimated at Rs12.5cr which has now been reduced to Rs9cr," said an official.
"Once the plant is functional, the construction waste would be washed, crushed and recycled into several products such as ready mix concrete, cement bricks, pavement blocks, hollow bricks and manufactured sand," said an engineer. City based builders said that it was a big relief as they had to spend extra on disposing the construction debris on their own.