Shutting down KCDC unit loss for Bengaluru, says Former MD

Bengaluru: “Shutting down or moving Karnataka Compost Development Corporation Limited (KCDC) unit from HSR Layout will be city's loss,” Dr Chikkanna Basavaiah, former managing director, told Deccan Chronicle on Tuesday.

Basavaiah was commenting on the reported move to close down KCDC unit, a profit-making public sector undertaking that converts Bengaluru’s garbage into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer.

Stressing on the contributions made by KCDC, Basavaiah said, “The waste treatment plant helps tackle pollution while at the same time ensuring a steady production of agricultural compost.”

Considering the fact that IT crowd that lives in posh apartments in its vicinity, Basavaiah added that residents should look for a way to co-exist with the waste treatment unit.

“Residents in the vicinity of the treatment plant and the BBMP must find a way to suppress the smell. Shifting the plant is not the answer. Is it fair to dump our garbage at a faraway place, whose residents might be affected by Bengaluru’s garbage?” he asked.

“KCDC not just helps recycle garbage. It also produces organic compost. Farmers in Karnataka are in need of fertilizer, which is becoming unaffordable by the day. The state provides a subsidy of Rs 1,500 to farmers using organic compost,” he said.

KCDC receives 10 per cent of Bengaluru’s total output of municipal solid waste, including refuse from homes, shops, offices and industrial units, market refuse, and street sweepings. The city produces close to 4,000 tonnes of garbage per day, according to Basavaiah.  

KCDC processes the waste by laying them in windrows in the open and sprays it with 5 per cent cow dung solution. Microbial decomposition activity builds up temperatures up to 90 degree centigrade within the rows and converts the garbage into an odourless, moist black material which is high quality organic manure.

After 60 days in the open, the manure is put through three rotating separators to take out solid, nonbiodegradable material like stones, glass, rubber and plastic including polythene bags and PET bottles, which are sent to landfills.

The screened manure is then packed bags and sent to sellers. KCDC also uses vermicompost methods, and 25 per cent of the manure is vermicompost.

That indifference on part of the BBMP is affecting KCDC.  Its prime location, off the now busy Hosur Road which is lined with software companies, is likely to be its death warrant.

The recently elected BJP MLA from the local constituency, a realtor by profession. has promised the IT professionals who have moved into newly built posh apartments nearby that he would get KCDC “moved to a new location.”