KOLKATA: The city and the rest of Bengal are all set to do away with the mountains of legacy waste in next two years with aggressive biomining and segregation of wastes at source, city’s mayor and state’s urban development minister Firhad Hakim said at an environmental workshop.
“The legacy dump sites are one of the biggest sources of air pollution because of constant methane generation and fire which burns all assorted waste and emanates toxic fumes. This is the reason why we have engaged fire tenders at the landfill sites to extinguish the flame,” Bengal Pollution Control Board chairman Kalyan Rudra said at the workshop organised by Climate Trends.
Professor Sagnik De of IIT-Delhi emphasised on an airshed-based approach for combating air pollution as the entire Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) is a problem area as it is enclosed by mountains in the north and Bengal is at the receiving end of huge transboundary pollution.
“Biomining will be carried out at all 107 landfill sites. The mountains will be flattened. Instead of mountains, you may find a playground or an urban forest. Along with this, we are aggressively promoting segregation of waste at source,” said Hakim.
“Apart from creating green verges, we have taken up a programme of planting 25,000 neem and deodar trees, which can withstand severe cyclones. The city lost as many as 15,000 full grown trees during the Amphan onslaught,” he added.
Debasish Kumar, MMiC (parks and gardens) said: “We are now allowing extra FAR proportionate to land one leaves for green space and 10 % discount on property tax to encourage more greener portions in the city.”
Kolkata: The city and the rest of Bengal are all set to do away with the mountains of legacy waste in next two years with aggressive biomining and segregation of wastes at source, city’s mayor and state’s urban development minister Firhad Hakim said at an environmental workshop.
“The legacy dump sites are one of the biggest sources of air pollution because of constant methane generation and fire which burns all assorted waste and emanates toxic fumes. This is the reason why we have engaged fire tenders at the landfill sites to extinguish the flame,” Bengal Pollution Control Board chairman Kalyan Rudra said at the workshop organised by Climate Trends.
Professor Sagnik De of IIT-Delhi emphasised on an airshed-based approach for combating air pollution as the entire Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) is a problem area as it is enclosed by mountains in the north and Bengal is at the receiving end of huge transboundary pollution.
“Biomining will be carried out at all 107 landfill sites. The mountains will be flattened. Instead of mountains, you may find a playground or an urban forest. Along with this, we are aggressively promoting segregation of waste at source,” said Hakim.
“Apart from creating green verges, we have taken up a programme of planting 25,000 neem and deodar trees, which can withstand severe cyclones. The city lost as many as 15,000 full grown trees during the Amphan onslaught,” he added.
Debasish Kumar, MMiC (parks and gardens) said: “We are now allowing extra FAR proportionate to land one leaves for green space and 10 % discount on property tax to encourage more greener portions in the city.”
