Waste disposal facility being set up in Himachal

Chandigarh, July 27 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh is setting up a Treatment Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) at Majra village near Nalagarh for disposal of all hazardous waste from the entire state.

The facility is being set up at a cost of Rs 35 crore with joint initiative of Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) and United Phosphorous Limited Group of Companies (UPL).

Shivalik Solid Waste Management Limited (SSWML) is a part of the United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) Group, which has expertise of managing similar facility in Gujarat.

SSWML holds 51 per cent equity with BBNIA holding 49 per cent in this project, for which the Himachal Pradesh government has allotted a land measuring 191.05 bighas and the construction work of preparing two pits has already begun, Mr Ashok Kumar Sharma, SSWML CEO said today.

In all, 15 pits would be constructed for disposal of solid hazardous waste collected from different industries in Himachal Pradesh.

The treatment, storage and disposal facility is being created following the Supreme Court guidelines making it mandatory for all the states to have such facility, Mr Sharma said. Himachal alone produces 50,000 MT of solid waste annually, as per the survey conducted by Tetra Tech of USA sometimes back.

As per the Hazardous Waste Rules 1989 (and as amended up to date), it is now mandatory for all industrial units generating hazardous waste to send it to the authorised dumping site and the HP State Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board has already approached the industrial units to conform to the guidelines to avoid penal action.

UNI