Bhubaneswar: Incessant rain has disrupted bio-mining work taken up by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to expedite processing of legacy waste and freeing land of waste piled up at Daruthenga village. So far, 13 of 22 lakh metric tonnes of waste have been processed freeing 30 acres, while legacy waste is spread over 62 acres.“We have completed processing 13 lakh metric tonnes in three years. Second phase bio-mining work should start but rain has disrupted it. Waste needs to be in dry form so that processing becomes easy. We will run bio-mine process on the remaining 9 lakh metric tonnes. Processed materials such as refuse-derived fuel (RDF), inert and biosoil are used for different purposes and the land is vacant with the private agency engaged in the work sending RDF stock to cement factories,” said Biplab Kumar Kishan, BMC engineer overseeing bio-mining work.Bio-mining of waste helps segregate and process different types of waste. An agency is engaged since 2023 to process legacy waste through bio-mining. “We have started process for the second phase now. Soon after the old agency leaves, the second phase work would begin in three stages,” elaborated BMC deputy commissioner N Ganesh Babu.BMC was dumping municipal solid waste at the site from 2008 to the end of 2022. “After National Green Tribunal asked state govt to direct urban local bodies to stop open dumping of waste and bio-mine old (legacy) waste, BMC started the operation in 2023,” said BMC officials.By treating or bio-mining the legacy waste, no further waste of the city was allowed to be dumped at Daruthenga. BMC promised the villagers that only after stopping waste transportation, it would bio-mine the old waste. “Bio-mining helps reclaim the land and also fill up the void (crater) that was created to dump waste. It is a long process. Waste piled up would be segregated and processed,” Kishan said.In Nov 2021, the bio-mining plan had received cabinet approval but work couldn’t progress because of villagers’ protest. BMC couldn’t start bio-mining till waste dumping was stopped.
