'Landfull': BBMP to focus on waste treatment

Despite the Bellahalli dump yard filling to its capacity in six months, the BBMP has scrapped plans to designate a new landfill.

Instead, the civic body has decided to increase the capacities of the seven waste treatment plants in the city.

The BBMP estimated the average amount of trash dumped at Bellahalli to be 1,000 tons, but it increased to 2,000 tons from last year following the closure of the other landfills. It said Bellahalli had taken eight lakh tons of waste from the city since 2016.

Of the 4,500-5,000 tons of waste produced in the city each day, the BBMP processes about 2,250 tons at the seven treatment plants located at various places.

Of these, the plants at Kannahalli, Chikkanagamangala and KCDC process 500 tons per day, while the Lingenahalli, Doddabidarikallu and Subbarayanapura plants process 200 tons each. The plant at Sigehalli processes 150 tons a day.

"We have decided not to identify any more places to be a landfill (after Bellahalli fills out)," BBMP’s joint commissioner for solid waste management Sarfaraz Khan told DH.

"We'd like to process all the waste generated in the city. We will, therefore, increase the capacity of all the processing plants. We'll do bio-mining in the previous (filled out) landfills like Mandur, Doddabidarikallu, Bingipura and Lakshmipura once the solid waste turns into methane gas that could be extracted," Khan added.

The bio-mining will first begin in the abandoned landfill at Baglur. It will continue at Mittaganahalli by early next year. "We’ll use quarry pits to dump other type of waste like construction debris, e-waste and others," Khan said.

The BBMP recently issued work orders to the bidder finalised to transport construction debris at Rs 135 per ton. The Palike will also set up 1,000 ton capacity waste-to-energy plants in Chikkanagamangala and Doddabidarikallu.

A French company will mechanically segregate waste supplied by the BBMP into energy, which would then be sold to the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited at a cost of Rs 7.08 per unit.