In order to get the High Court to withdraw its stay order on works initiated under the Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL), the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) narrowed down on three acres of land in Pacchanady for the disposal of construction debris.
The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) authorities have given clearance for the site identified at Pacchanady. “Under the Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste Management Rules, 2016, one cannot dump debris at will. It needs to be segregated and stocked,” MCC Commissioner Akshy Sridhar told DH.
Approval given
The setting up of a processing plant will take some time. The KSPCB officials have inspected the land in Pacchanady and given approval for the disposal of debris.
In the past, the MCC had identified an abandoned red stone quarry in Kunjathbail and in Kannur for dumping construction debris. However, the KSPCB officials had felt that Kannur site was not suitable as it might pollute River Netravathi in future.
In the absence of government approved sites for dumping construction debris, contractors and builders had begun to dump building debris on the either sides of the roads, highways, riversides and so on.
An activist filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court declaring that in the absence of site for dumping debris, construction debris were being dumped along with garbage in Pacchanady.
The court, after hearing the PIL, had stayed all works under the Smart City projects until the debris had been cleared. Thus works initiated under the Smart City projects, including the underpass and others, had come to a grinding halt. In order to dispose debris scientifically, the MCC had decided to study similar projects initiated in New Delhi and other places.