Chennai: About eight lakh tonnes of legacy waste, left unattended for five years due to the non-performance of a contractor, will soon be cleared at the Perungudi dumpyard.
Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) recently resolved an arbitration with contractor WeStart Communication, who had moved court against the termination of their contract about two years ago. GCC was required to release some pending dues to the contractor. Following arbitration, the contractor has now been directed to resume work.
GCC commissioner J Kumaragurubaran said that of the eight lakh tonnes of remaining waste, only one lakh tonne has been processed so far. “Additional machines are being deployed. A drone survey was carried out to assess the remaining quantity,” he said.
Overall, of the original 30 lakh tonnes of biomined waste at the 250-acre Perungudi dumpyard, about 10 lakh tonnes are still left to be biomined. The contractor has also been asked to redo portions of the waste he previously claimed to have processed.
Meanwhile, at the 300-acre Kodungaiyur dumpyard, GCC has processed 10 lakh tonnes of legacy waste under a 640.83 crore biomining project. Here, work began a few months ago.
The dumpyard holds around 66.52 lakh tonnes of waste spread across 335 acres. The project, handled by Zigma, is divided into six packages and is expected to be completed in two years.
Every day, around 2,500 tonnes of new waste arrive at the Kodungaiyur yard from Thiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Tondiarpet, Royapuram, and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones.
The commissioner added that processing capacity will soon be increased to 10,000 tonnes a day to fast-track the project.