A construction and demolition waste recovery plant in Rajarhat is set to open in April.
According to MMiC overseeing the KMC solid waste management department Debabrata Majumdar, who visited the site on Wednesday, the plant will be operational by the end of April.
“The construction is complete. Now it awaits a power connection and the necessary checks of the machines,” Majumdar told . According to Majumdar, the plant – with a capacity to handle 500 tonnes of waste per day – will play a crucial role in scientific handling of construction waste.
Construction waste will be crushed into aggregates that can be mixed with concrete to pave roads. Construction waste includes head-break concrete blocks of pile caps and broken tiles that are not biodegradable. They can be used to pave driveways. According to a KMC source, a 5-acre plot was handed over to a private firm for the installation of the mechanical plant for construction waste recovery.
According to a KMC official, the civic body will lift waste from smaller housing projects and, instead of dumping them in landfills, it will bring the waste to the crushing unit in Rajarhat. For larger projects, each of which will generate 20 tonnes or more waste in a day, a plant will be needed at the construction site, the civic official said.
A civic official said a decision to set up the construction waste recovery plant in Rajarhat was taken after the civic body was given a 5-acre plot by HIDCO.
According to sources, an agreement was inked with a private firm to set it up and operate it for 10 years. “We are banking on this project for a solution to construction waste problems in Kolkata. If this model becomes successful, we may need to plan another such plant,” a KMC official said.
The KMC brass has also thought of penalizing developers who dump construction materials indiscriminately on roads and pavements.
A developer is allowed to dump construction materials on the site till the ground floor is constructed. From the first floor onwards, the construction waste must be kept inside the barricaded site. “We have asked our officials to locate illegal dumping of construction materials in every borough,” said a KMC official.