Tonnes of waste cleared daily, but GCC merely dumps it at shut sites?

Time of India

2 days ago

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Chennai: Chennai clears its streets of construction waste every day — but where does it all go? Nowhere, says the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), in a detailed report submitted to the National Green Tribunal.
Despite the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) collecting nearly 1,000 metric tonnes of construction and demolition (C&D) waste daily, the two official processing sites — Perungudi and Kodungaiyur — remain shut, with waste continuing to pile up since their closure. Perungudi stopped functioning in August 2024, while Kodungaiyur followed in December.
Though both plants were set up in 2020 with a capacity of 400 MT per day and had valid consents to operate until 2030, the shutdown rendered the collection exercise incomplete.
The collected debris is now accumulating at these very sites, violating environmental norms and threatening to undo efforts made under the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016. The TNPCB report also notes that GCC identified 25 dumping hotspots across the city, with persistent illegal dumping near parks, metro rail stations, and even crematoria.
While GCC claims to have outsourced C&D collection and transportation to a private contractor, the TNPCB inspections across all 15 city zones confirm that the final step — processing — is not happening.
The Board's photos from the ground further confirm this stagnation.
In response to a Central Pollution Control Board alert over repeated violations, TNPCB has now issued formal directions to GCC under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The civic body has been asked to comply with the 2016 rules, act against violators, and implement CPCB's 2017 guidelines on environmental management of C&D waste.
The report concludes by urging the Tribunal to instruct GCC to restore operations at existing plants and install additional capacity, considering the city's daily waste generation.
"They shut the Perungudi plant in August and Kodungaiyur in December, yet keep collecting 1,000 tonnes daily. Where is it all going? In Valmiki Nagar, over 50 tonnes were cleared once, but it came back in weeks. Without processing, the waste is just getting dumped elsewhere," said Karthikeyan, a Thiruvanmiyur resident.