Ludhiana:

The Municipal Corporation (MC) launched two major projects worth around ₹77 crore to treat and dispose of the legacy waste in an effective manner on Saturday. The projects have been launched for bio-remediation of around 19.62 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste at the Jamalpur main dump site of the civic body on Tajpur road and for bio-remediation of over 2 lakh metric tonnes at Jainpur site. The plants/facilities will be set up in two to four months.
The project for bio-remediation of legacy waste at Jamalpur dump site is being taken up at a cost of around ₹70 crore and it will be completed in around two years. The MC will not provide any machinery for the project and the plant is being installed by the contractor.
The heaps of trash would be removed and around 41 acres of MC land would be freed after bio-remediation of the legacy waste. This site would then be used for effective solid waste management in future.
At Jainpur, around 2.19 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste would be disposed of through bio-remediation and around 29 acres of land would be freed for future projects of the civic body.
The project is being taken up at a cost of around ₹7.62 crore and it would be completed in around 1.5 years.
MC officials said the civic body had launched the first phase to process around 5 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste at the Jamalpur dump site around two years ago. The second phase for the remaining over 19 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste was launched on Saturday. The entire legacy waste would be cleared after the completion of these projects.
Officials said these projects are part of a comprehensive action plan to improve the solid waste management in the city. The contractors will establish the plants/facilities in two to four months.
Officials said the civic body is also working to launch a project for disposing of the fresh waste generated in the city on a daily basis. The MC recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Chennai-based firm for turning 400 metric tonnes of fresh waste into green charcoal. Soon, a project will be launched for the remaining 700 metric tonnes of fresh waste. Around 1,100 metric tonnes of waste is generated in the city on a daily basis.