HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, March 14: The Tinsukia district administration, in coordination with five municipal boards in the district namely Tinsukia, Doomdooma, Digboi, Margherita, and Makum Municipal Board, initiated an ambitious initiative to make the district legacy waste-free in March 2023. The first project was initiated by pooling in Oil India Limited CSR Funds for the bio-mining of legacy waste of Tinsukia and Makum Municipal Board. Since then, 75,000 metric tons (MT) of waste have been treated at the dumpsite at Tingrai, Tinsukia. This has been an emotional issue for the people of the region for a long time, as they were unable to pass the area on Tinsukia Duliajan Road due to the bad smell and filthy flies buzzing all around. Additionally, in Doomdooma Municipal Board, 18,000 metric tons (MT) have been treated, while in Digboi and Margherita, 25,000 and 30,000 metric tons (MT) of waste, respectively, have been processed utilising the bio-mining technique, making the district’s total reach 1.53 lakh metric tons (MT) within the span of a year.
This marks the commitment of the state government in fulfilling its green agenda in line with the guidelines issued by the NGT. The agency entrusted to execute these projects in all the ULBs is M/s Call and Fix.
Swapneel Paul, district commissioner, Tinsukia, has stated that the treatment of waste in all the sites combined has yielded more than 80 bighas of reclaimed land near the urban centres of the district, which can now be used for developmental activities.
He has also mentioned that an MOU was executed with Dalmia Cement, where refuse-derived fuel (RDF) coming out as a by-product of the process is sent to the cement factories for their utilisation. This initiative has made Tinsukia a model district in the reclamation of land through biomining of legacy wastes.
