As the new Council of the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) will be elected by March 8, the biggest challenge before them is the long pending issue of the much needed garbage treatment facility-Bainguinim Solid Waste Management Facility and garbage treatment facility behind Heera Petrol Pump.
Despite the government proposing garbage treatment plants, a segregation facility and a dumping ground almost eight years back, a lot is still left to be done in the city as most projects are not functioning and those that are functioning, are doing so not very efficiently.
Way back in 2009, the CCP acquired land admeasuring 1,71,312 sq mts at Bainguinim. In the very same year, it also acquired 3,600 sq mts for segregation and treatment facility behind Heera petrol pump, near Kadamba bus stand. While the Bainguinim facility is still caught up in a bureaucratic hurdle, the commencement of the facility at Heera Petrol Pump is only getting different deadlines.
The opposition for both the projects that lasted up till mid-2013 forced the civic body to dump and treat its garbage waste at compositing sites at Market and Patto Plaza.
Panjim, on an average generates 70 tonnes of garbage every day, which is dumped at Patto Plaza (two treatment plant) and at various compositing units. According to CCP statistics, a total of 130 compositing units are present across the city.
The Patto Plant behind SBI is non-functional with the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) directing the CCP to clear the dump waste latest by May end.
Bainguinim: after missing out under JNNURM, the project to be State funded.
It is almost three years since the High Court gave a green signal to the Government to go ahead with the Bainguinim plant despite the opposition raised by the locals. But till date, the government has failed to get the local Panchayat permission for the facility. As per JNNURM, the project had to be completed by 2015.
CCP Mayor, Surendra Furtado, in February 2014 managed to get the detailed project report of the treatment facility approved from the Union Urban Development Ministry, and got Rs 90 crore sanctioned for the project under JNNURM. However, the Ministry failed to make the provision in the 2015-16 budget, forcing the State to take it up under State funding.
The Government has decided to set up the treatment plant at Bainguinim based on German technology on design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) basis, at an estimated cost of around Rs 140 crore.
In a bid to expedite the project, the CCP has written to the Town and country planning department (TCP) requesting it to continue to mark the area identified for the project as Garbage Treatment Zone (GTZ) under Regional Plan 2021.
Currently, a Nagpur-based agency is conducting an environment impact assessment (EIA) study of the plant.
Heera petrol pump segregation and treatment site also a slow starter
CCP’s proposed site for treating the garbage, which is located behind the Heera petrol pump, at Patto is also yet to kick off. The site also saw controversy surrounding it, after the Botanical Society of Goa (BSG) and civil right groups opposed the proposed development, claiming that the facility is in an area marked as a No Development Zone in the outline development plan or ODP 2011.
The Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) is expected to complete the construction of the garbage centre and the composting site behind the Heera petrol pump within a month while commissioning will follow soon after.
