KOCHI: The city corporation has turned down the state government's proposal to set up a biomedical waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram. Though the government has earlier allocated three acres of land to Indian Medical Association for setting up the facility, the corporation council has raised serious apprehensions over the project proposal and decided to take up the matter with the government.
The council meeting discussed it as the Public Accounts Committee has instructed the corporation to submit a proposal for setting up the treatment plant.
"The land identified for the facility has already been handed over to GJ Eco Power Private Limited for construction of the waste-to-energy plant. Hence, the proposed land can't be handed over to the IMA," mayor Soumini Jain said. "The corporation also has to consider the strong opposition from residents against the project. The area already has corporation's solid waste treatment plant, septage treatment plant and the proposed waste-to-energy plant."
"The biomedical waste treatment plant will be a major health hazard as huge quantities of hospital waste from across the state will be brought to Brahmapuram. The residents are bearing the brunt of waste treatment plant there,' she added.
V.P. Chandran, CPM councillor and member of Health Standing Committee, added that council members had raised serious apprehensions over the plant. As per the plans, the government would provide the land where the IMA would build and operate the facility with the concurrence of the corporation. The project, estimated to cost Rs 4.9 crore, will have the capacity to treat 10 tonnes of biomedical waste per day.
Currently, the state has only one biomedical waste treatment plant - operated by the IMA - at Palakkad that caters to around 6,000 hospitals, laboratories and healthcare centres. The green groups allege that the plant will result in high level of pollution. Brahmapuram and the adjoining Kadambrayar River are already bearing the brunt of two waste treatment plants, and they wonder why the area is being selected for such projects.
