Bhopal: Exactly 40 years and 26 days after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the move to shift 337 tons of toxic waste from the Union Carbide factory site here to the incineration facility in Pithapuram in Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh began on Sunday.
The hazardous waste, stored in the premises of the Union Carbide factory here, closed around two decades ago, were being packed and loaded in a dozen GPS enabled trucks with specially reinforced containers since Sunday morning for transportation to the Pithapuram industrial waste management plant through a ‘Green Corridor’ created for the purpose, for disposal.
“The shifting of the 337 tons of the toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant to the incineration facility at Pithapuram will begin either on Sunday night or Monday morning”, Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation director Swatantra Kumar Singh told this newspaper.
According to him, workers specially trained for handling toxic substances have been assigned the task of packing the hazardous waste and loading them in the containers.
They have been provided with the PPE kits.
A team of doctors has been deployed at the Union Carbide site to provide medical treatment to the workers if any of them is found to be exposed by the toxic substances on the occasion.
Incineration experts, and officials of Central and state pollution control boards were present on the occasion to monitor the process of packing and loading the toxic waste in the containers.
“We are ensuring a proper and full-proof method of packing and loading the toxic waste which is of international standard”, Mr Singh said.
The move to shift the toxic waste from Union Carbide plant site to incineration facility at Pithapuram comes in the wake of the recent directive by the Madhya Pradesh high court to complete the process by January six.
The state government is going to submit an action taken report to the MP high court in this regard on January three, 2025.
According to Mr Singh, it may take at best nine months to incinerate the entire 337 tons of the toxic waste at the Pithapuram facility.
Ten tons of toxic waste from Union Carbide was successfully incinerated at the Pithapuram facility in 2015 on a trial basis.
In a related development, Congress on Sunday staged a demonstration at Pithapuram opposing disposal of Union Carbide waste at the incineration facility.
State Congress president Jitu Patwari who led the protests said that the move would cause pollution in the area.
The tragedy was caused by leakage of the deadly methyl isocyanate in Union Carbide plant here on the intervening night of December two-three, 1984 leading to death of around 15,000 people and injuries to around one lakh others.
