While the Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation (AMC) is trying to find ways to dispose of the waste segregated
from the Pirana landfill, another government body is considering lifting a
significant part of this waste. If all falls into place, AMC’s flattening of
the Pirana trash mountain will also make for smooth aircraft landings at the
proposed Dholera airport. Dholera International Airport Co. Ltd (DIACL)
expressed interest in taking away the mud and construction debris extracted
from Pirana, to level the patchy airport site.
DIACL has asked IIT Gandhinagar to
present a feasibility report on whether the mixture of mud and construction
debris could be used to level the airport site.
Amit Chavda, general manager of DIACL,
said, “We are in talks with AMC to to use construction debris and mud from
Pirana to level land at the airport site. “We need a massive quantity of debris
to level the land in Dholera. We are exploring the possibility of using
construction debris to level the earth there. We requested IIT Gandhinagar to
carry out a feasibility study to figure out the economics of material
transportation from Pirana to Dholera.
We are also figuring out the quantity
AMC will be able to provide,” Chavda said.
A senior urban development department
official said Dholera will need at least 70 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of material
to level the airport site. He said construction of the airport can begin only
after the land is levelled.
The AMC currently segregates and disposes of 2,400 metric tonnes of mixed waste from Pirana every day, using eight trommel machines. Around 65% of this waste is construction debris (35%) and mud (30%).
While the AMC is currently generating
1,560 MT of mud and debris a day, it plans to increse the number of trommel
machines from eight to 40. Then the civic body would generate 8,000 MT of mud
and construction debris a day.
The AMC is currently using extracted
construction debris at its paver block-making plant, while the mud is used to
produce fertiliser. Mud is also being used in situ, to reclaim the Pirana site.