Team Herald
MARGAO: Solid Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo along with Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai and Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat during his visit to the Sonsoddo plant has “devised” a plan to have eight small modular garbage treatment plants at the site amidst tonnes of untreated garbage.
He assured to speed up the process and ensure that the old dump at Sonsoddo is remediated.
This is Lobo’s first visit to Sonsoddo after the lockdown.
MMC Chairperson, Chief Officer, Member Secretary of the Solid Waste Management Levinson Martins and others accompanied the minister.
Revealing a new plan to have a small plant at the Sonsoddo, Lobo urged the Leader of Opposition, Fatorda MLA and the MMC to be on the same page. "By end of October or first week of November the Reject Derive Fines (RDF) stacked at the old dump will be taken away and reduced by 50%. The shade below the dump will be used for setting up of the new technology treatment plants," said Lobo.
The minister called for cutting short the requirement of land and labourers at the decentralised sites as the facility here will be centralised.
"The technology that was witnessed by the Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai at Solapur will be brought here in the form of 7 small modular plants, 4 at the old shade below and remaining on the tabletop at the Sonsoddo," the Minister informed adding that the these plants will treat wet waste and dry waste would continue to be baled and sent to cement plants.
A proposal will be formulated and given to Margao and Fatorda MLAs and also to MMC to finalise the same.
The technology has been taken from the GEM portal of the Central Government which is a pool of contractors with technologies which are selected by the State according to their requirements.
The Minister said, “The same will be executed by using Government, Municipal funds and also the 14th Finance Commission Funds with the MMC.”
He said, "The plan is the same, but the decentralised plan has been changed into a plan to set up machinery centralised at Sonsoddo. We were waiting for the land to be cleared which will happen soon".
"The contactor will be responsible for treating the waste, create energy which will be sent to the grid," he said.
"It is decades old and a pressing issue and we will co-operate with the solid waste management corporation to solve the issues," said Vijai.
Kamat said, “The solid waste management corporation has taken the responsibility to give us a plan to treat 38 tonnes of garbage that the MMC generates on daily basis.”