Delay in garbage processing plant at Harsul posing health threat

Aurangabad, Nov 15:

Four years ago, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) proposed the construction of three plants to process dry garbage at Chikalthana, Padegaon and Harsul. The processing capacity of each plant is 150 metric tonnes (MT) each. The

AMC succeeded in starting two plants, while the plant at Harsul could not be started due to the absence of adequate space for the past two years.

Presently, a quantity of 450 MT garbage is generated daily from the city, but due to the non-functioning of the Harsul plant, 100 MT garbage is lying unprocessed in the city daily and it is posing a health threat to all, it is claimed.

As reported earlier, the city witnessed a severe garbage menace in 2017. Taking note of it, the state government to get rid of solid waste management (SWM) announced an aid of Rs 148 crore. Of which, the AMC received Rs 80 crore and the remaining Rs 68 crore is yet to be received. The civic administration utilised the government's fund to start garbage processing plants at Padegaon and Chikalthana. They are functioning in full capacity. The processing of 300 MT garbage is being done daily. The plant at Kanchanwadi has the capacity to process 30 MT of wet garbage daily. However, all efforts to start the Harsul plant has been failed.

Four years ago, 350 MT garbage was generated in the city and today it has been increased to 450 MT. As a result, a quantity of 100 MT garbage is lying unprocessed. The administration tries its best to process an additional quantity of 30 to 40 MT garbage at Padegaon and Chikalthana plants, but it's not regular. Hence it is for sure that 100 MT garbage is lying processed. This is posing a health threat. Had the Harsul plant would have started, there would have not been any quantity of garbage lying unprocessed in the city.