Plant To Solve Filth Issues Of About A Third Of City In First Phase Lucknow:The cleanliness plans of Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) got a further boost when last week it got the possession of a patch of land from irrigation department near Para on the bypass between Hardoi Road and Kanpur Road. It is on this land that a transfer station is to be built to support the city's municipal solid waste treatment plant at Shivri village. The delay in getting this piece of land from irrigation department was the main bottleneck as the department was unhappy with land’s evaluation and compensation offered to them. The treatment plant’s proposal was floated in 2009 and since then the LMC has been trying hard to obtain this land from irrigation department. With this clearance in place, the plant could have started operating in full capacity by December 2013 as per the LMC’s schedule but it has met yet another procedural bottleneck of delay in getting clearance from the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB). LMC-appointed operator, Jyoti Envirotech has yet to receive an authorisation letter from the UPPCB to run the treatment plant. As of now, the plant is ready and running on trial basis, treating waste from only zone-5 because of its proximity to the site. It comprises colonies located on Kanpur and Rae Bareli Road. “Sometimes they say remnants of the plant would pollute Gomti River, other times they find lacuna in our work. But they fail to realise that if not controlled now, activities of random waste dumping around the city would pollute it to a greater extent,” said an official of the operator. On Friday, the LMC transferred the obtained land to Construction and Design Services (C&DS) of Jal Nigam which is the executing agency on behalf of the LMC to monitor construction of transfer station. It would soon deploy Jyoti Envirotech to begin construction work after which it should be ready within the next five-six months. While the LMC seemed much sure about beginning the full service of plant by year end, Jyoti Envirotech officials said that there are many inhabitations on the land and it would be a difficult task to remove them. “They need to be rehabilitated first, only then we can proceed,” said the company. The project is aimed at organising solid waste management of the city and would run on PPP model. Four transfer stations are proposed to support the main plant – in Gwari village of Gomtinagar area, Mandi Samiti on Sitapur Road, on Rae Bareli road near SGPGI and the fourth one near Para, which the LMC recently obtained. Each station has to be set up on about 5,000 square metre area. Lands on Sitapur Road, Rae Bareli road and in Gwari village had been obtained much earlier and almost 75% civil work in these stations is complete. The operator, however, still needs to import heavy machinery from China for these stations to make the waste compact, which would then be sent to the treatment plant. About new transfer station, the operator predicted that the civil work would hardly take 2-3 months but installation of specialized machines could consume a little more time. Jyoti Envirotech is at present collecting door-to-door waste from 56 out of 110 wards in Lucknow. It has a clear plan to branch out its services in other parts of the city over next six months’ time, By then the plant would also start functioning in full capacity. The city generates nearly 1,500 metric tonnes of garbage every month whereas the plant has a capacity of treating 1,500 metric tonnes of garbage every 24 hours. This means that once started, the plant could be much effective in managing waste of the city. PRUDENT DISPOSAL How the treatment plant will work Once the plant starts, it would involve a 3-step process—Citizens would be asked to segregate their organic and other waste in separate bags, which would subsequently be collected by Jyoti Envirotech and sent to transfer stations in small vehicles. Here, the waste would be compacted and sent to the main plant. At the main plant, waste would be allowed to stay for 45 days for composting (to manufacture manures). The remaining waste would be converted into ‘Refused Derived Fuel’ to be used by boilers and furnaces of various industries. This fuel has advantage of having lesser caloric value (about 30% less) as compared to coal. The residue would then be dumped in the landfill, which can sustain waste dumping for at least 25 years Door-to-door collection plan over next six months: Zones covered in phased manner Gomtinagar could be the last one to be covered under door-to-door collection mechanism as residents here prefer hiring private sweepers who carry waste and dump it at random places. Operator claims despite being a posh locality, residents are reluctant to give user charges to the authorised private partner of LMC