Malda: ‘Processing unit to make manure from daily household waste from next year’

Malda: The English Bazar Municipality (EBM) is going to set up a processing unit for the production of manure and fuel from daily wastes from the households under its area. The civic body is also setting up 2 dumping grounds for the waste disposal at Bahadurpur and Kanchanter areas, almost 10 kilometers away from the EBM area. This waste processing unit will be located at Kanchanter on a temporary basis. It will be followed by the setting up of a permanent one later. At Bahadurpur, a land of 3.295 acres and at Kanchanter, 6.28 acres of land has been specified for the project.

The scientific central processing unit of the household wastes will produce manure and refuse derived fuel (RDF). RDF is a renewable source of energy produced from wastes which is shred, dried and baled, therefore burnt to generate electricity. The National Thermal Power Corporation plant at Farakka in Murshidabad will supply the RDF produced at Kanchanter. Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury, chairman of EBM, said: “Hopefully the processing unit will be functional from the next financial year. The permanent unit will be set up later by some other state agency. The tender process is going on for that.”

For the dumping ground at Kanchanter, the approach road is being built with a fund of almost Rs 30 lakh and boundary walls with nearly Rs 40 lakh. EBM has been without a permanent dumping ground for some years and this solution to the problem will bring a sigh of relief to the EBM authorities. Further, the production from wastes will earn revenue to the civic body.