After decades of taking in garbage from all south Chennai neighbourhoods, the 225-acre Perungudi dumpyard is likely to call it quits by 2026-end. Commuters and residents along the foul-smelling 200-Feet Radial Road can finally heave a sigh of relief.To facilitate this, the city corporation proposed a 2,500tonnes-per-day waste-to-energy (WTE) plant at Keerapakkam, near Vengadamangalam, in the southern suburbs, at an estimated cost of ₹800 crore. The project was proposed in March this year, and tender bids were opened last week.Besides the WTE plant, which will incinerate up to 2,500 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste, the project includes two bio-CNG plants to process wet waste and windrow composting facilities that can process up to 800 tonnes. The bio-CNG plants will process up to 400 tonnes. Under the windrow method, waste will be arranged in rows, sprayed with bio-enzymes, and exposed to air, allowing sunlight and microbial action to decompose the wet waste through an aerobic process in a 5-acre area.The harder fraction of wet waste will be processed at the bio-CNG plants, with the gas produced to be sold to private players. Of the ₹800-crore project cost, the state govt will contribute ₹350 crore, while the contractor will invest the remaining amount. The contractor will generate around 45MW of power daily from the WTE plant and earn revenue by selling the electricity.Waste generated across south Chennai will be transported at night in around 100 closed trucks via Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) and Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road, before reaching the site through the OMR-Vandalur state highway.“At the moment, about 5 lakh tonnes of wet waste remains to be processed in Perungudi. We can expect the dumpyard to be fully cleared by the end of next year,” said Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) commissioner G S Sameeran.The Tamil Nadu govt originally proposed a waste-to-incineration plant at Perungudi but dropped the plan following public outcry. “The new site is conducive to the project. We still need to get environmental clearance. We will finalise the bidder soon,” Sameeran said.Within the 75-acre site, GCC will earmark 50 acres as a temporary landfill where waste from Avadi and Tambaram will be brought for segregation before being sent to bio-CNG plants, WTE facility and windrow composting units. The civic body plans to hand over the restored land in Perungudi to the environment department. Officials said vegetation has already begun growing on the reclaimed portions, while the remaining restored land will be left undisturbed. Plans to develop an eco-park were shelved following opposition from residents.At Kodungaiyur in north Chennai, where another 3,000 tonnes of waste is dumped, GCC has started civil work for the 2,100-tonnes-per-day WTE plant. Finance minister N Marie Wilson, who represents R K Nagar, recently inspected the Kodungaiyur dumpyard and said incineration work at the site would commence soon.
