Global tender for ‘waste plant’

A global tender will be floated this month for setting up a state-of-the-art waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram. The tender will be floated once the pre-qualification assessment of the agencies that had expressed their interest for the construction of the plant is over, said Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhy Ali.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the website launch of Greater Cochin Development Authority’s (GCDA) Vision 2030 programme here, the Minister said the technical team is   analysing the expression of interests (EoI) submitted by various global agencies. “The  agencies that will be qualified will participate in the tender for the construction of the plant, which will be built totally on  public-private participation (PPP) mode,” Ali said. The government had also decided to provide 10 acres of land at Brahmapuram for the construction of the plant.

Vilappisala melee

Regarding the unrest prevailing at Vilappilsala in Thiruvanathpuram, where locals are protesting against transportation of clay and machinery to the solid waste treatment plant, the Minister said the government is bound to obey the High Court  order and hopes that people will try to understand the necessity of such a facility. “I do not think the protest is against setting up a new plant at Vilappilsala. The people had earlier blocked the waste transportation to Vilappilsala citing that without proper  treatment the waste gets accumulated in the plant site, causing difficulties to the public. Because of that, they are against the idea of a waste treatment plant. If we can assure them that such a situation will not evolve again, they will get convinced, I believe,” Ali said.

Website

Earlier, the Minister also launched the website ‘www.vision2030kochi.com’, created by GCDA to promote its ambitious programme Vision 2030 which aims at elevating Kochi to the  level of a metropolitan city. GCDA will also organise a two-day seminar on August 16 and 17 in connection with the programme.

There will be different sessions focusing on the need to transform GCDA into a metropolitan regional development authority, necessity of an integrated traffic and transport plan for the city, need for suburban rail network and development of existing water network and other infrastructure facilities.

Over 2500 participants including expert town planners, architects and engineers are likely to attend the seminar.

Excise Minister K Babu unveiled the logo for Vision 2030 at the function. Mayor Tony Chammany, MLAs Hibi Eden, Dominic presentation and Benny Behnan and GCDA chairman N Venugopal were also present.