The State government has issued detailed guidelines for the handling of construction waste to prevent the dumping of these in water bodies and public places, Minister for Local Self-Governments M.V. Govindan has said.
Common construction waste processing units for more than one district will be implemented. Mechanisms will be evolved at the local body level for the collection of construction waste.
The waste collection will be done through mobile units as well as collection centres where the owners or contractors can hand over the construction waste. At least one collection point will be set up within an area of five-km radius. The collection as well as processing mechanisms can either be run by the local bodies, as a joint venture of various local bodies in an area, as public private partnership models, or as fully private ventures.
There will be no collection fees for construction waste below two tonnes. The house owner can either hand it over to collection centres or the local body’s mobile collection facility will arrange to collect it. The owner has to pay collection fees for the local body for waste weighing between two and 20 tonnes or hand it over at the collection centre at his or her own cost. For construction waste above two tonnes, the owner has to bring it to the collection centre at own cost and pay a processing fee too.
The district-level monitoring committee, chaired by the District Collector and with the Suchitwa Mission district coordinator as the convenor, will fix the collection and processing fees. The committee will decide the number and capacity of the processing plants required in each district.
For processing plants under the public private partnership model, the government will provide land to set up plans that can handle 100 tonnes of construction waste daily. The private company or individual will have to arrange the machinery as well as run the plant and generate revenue.
At least 75 cents of land will be required to open a processing unit. The plants will not be allowed to be set up within 100 metres of public institutions, houses or places of worship. As per the government norms, at least 20% of recycled construction waste should be used for all of its construction activities. This will help reduce the exploitation of natural resources as well as to promote reuse. Recycled construction waste can be used for land filling, tetrapod construction, road construction, for making hollow bricks, walkways and park benches as well as for many other purposes.
The government has also fixed a fine amount of ₹10,000 for dumping construction waste with other waste and ₹20,000 for dumping it in public places. Those dumping construction waste in water bodies could face up to three years in jail and ₹2 lakh fine. A fine amount of ₹5,000 for each tonne can be levied if the construction waste is not removed within 10 days of demolition. For non-segregated handing over of construction waste and for improper transport, a fine of ₹10,000 will be levied.
