Gandhidham civic body plans waste management

Gandhidham Municipality will introduce solid waste management system in Gandhidham and in nearby Adipur area. With an estimated cost of Rs 1.84 crore, the proposed management system is expected to reform the present unscientific waste disposal system in the area by supplying organics to the farmers at cheaper rates than the market.

"The vehicle drivers dispose of waste in an unhygienic manner. We seek to address this issue by introducing a systematic system of garbage disposal," Balwant Singh Chavda of Gandhidham Municipality said.

In Gandhidham, the Kandla Port Trust (KPT) authorities as well as Sindhu Resettlement Coporation (SRC) and the Indian Farmer Fertilizer Company (IIFFCO) colony at Udainagar also generate a huge amount of solid waste.

Under the new disposal system, solid waste will be brought by the dumper placers and discharged directly in a windrow area. These windrows will be turned on every 25th day and the waste removed for further processing.

After processing 40 per cent of the undersized material will be sold as compost for the farmers and 10 per cent of the it such as plastic, paper and metals will be sold to the retailers. The remaining 50 per cent will go towards land-filling.

"Gandhidham Municipality suffers from shortage of funds. It is being observed that priority to the solid waste management project will bring better revenues to the Municipality." added Chavda.

Currently Gandhidham has a population of 1.75 lakh and generates around 52.5 tpd of solid waste. The per capita waste quantity is increasing by 1.33 per cent every year.

An official from the municipality said, "The quantity of solid waste is increasing at an alarming rate. This project will help us supply organics to the farmers at a comparative cheap price so that disposal issue is addressed along with additional revenue generation." However, the official did not divulge the prices of the organics.