The Authorities at the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and the general public around the Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite are showing a sigh of relief as they are completely relieved of the issues faced by them due to the waste that was dumped at the Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite during the yesteryears. Now the dumpsite has been completely reclaimed by the Erode based Zigma Global Environ Solutions Pvt. Ltd., who have been provided with the contract of segregating and removing the waste at Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation. This is India’s largest land reclamation work done in terms of the area reclaimed and it has been executed by Zigma Global Environ Solutions Pvt. Ltd., through a process called Bio Mining.
Zigma Global is India’s largest Bio Mining company which has also reclaimed the Dump Sites completely at Kumbakonam, Sembakkam, Pammal and Poonamallee in Chennai and Erode-Vairapalayam, all in Tamil Nadu andanother 2 dumpsites at NOIDA in Uttar Pradesh. The reclaimed lands have been handed over to the respective Urban Local Bodies. Also ZigmaGlobal has installed similar plants at Erode-Vendipalayam, Pallavaram, Tambaram,Karur, Dindigul, Karaikudi, Chidambaram, Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Nagpur in Maharashtra, Noida (3rd project) in Uttar Pradesh and Vadodara in Gujarat where the work is underway.
The erstwhile dumpsite at Ajith Singh Nagar issituated at the centre of the city and surrounded by not less than 400 apartments which were built for the BPL families under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and was not occupied due to the presence of the dumpsite. However, after the reclamation activity, not only has the apartments occupied, the Authority has now decided to expand the apartments..Zigma has reclaimed the 45 acres dumpsite completely from the perils of the legacy waste. Ajith Singh Nagar is located well within Vijayawada City and the value of the land reclaimed by Zigma is around Rs. 650 Crores which was otherwise remaining just as a dumpsite. The overall amount spent by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation towards the contract awarded to Zigma Global to reclaim the dumpsiteis just Rs. 25.75 Crores.
Out of the reclaimed land 5 acres was converted into a Construction and Demolition Waste facility, 2 acres for a plastic waste management facility, 2 acres for a waste to compost processing facility, 5 acres for a farmers produce market and 5 acres for a children’s park.
The dumpsite during the Bio Mining process and subsequent to the complete reclamation had been visited by quite a number of dignitaries from SwacchBharath Mission, Supreme Court Panel for Solid Waste Management, National Green Tribunal, Scientists/Researchers from Central and State Universities, Central and State Ministers, Bureaucrats and media persons. Most of them were very keen in learning about the Bio Mining process and also were equally keen in implementing similar projects to clear the dumpsites at various cities of the Country.
The general public living around the Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite have been suffering a lot until the recent past due to
· Increasing ground water pollution which was the primary source of drinking water to them.
· Air pollution caused due to the waste being burnt by ragpickers and summer heats
· Bad odour caused due to the organic content decomposition in the waste dumped on a day to day basis.
· Mosquito and fly menace caused due to the leachate water and stagnate water near the dump
Now, the authorities at Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and the public are relieved a lot after complete reclamation of the dumpsite.
The public and the authorities at the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation are in full praise for the work done by Zigma.Opinion of general public:
- S. Ravindra Rao, a shopkeeper near the Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite opined that the work done by Zigma Global is highly appreciable. He said for the last 20 years he is residing near the Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite and faced lots of problems like continuous mosquito bites, frequent fire accidents at the dumpsites causing pollution of the air and also several health issues. He further said consequent to the work completed by Zigma Global, now the place looks nice and opined that the reclaimed land can be utilized for constructing a park or can be utilized for the purpose of making it an agricultural market.
- Mrs. Lakshmi, a local resident for years said that she and her family have been suffering from the smoke, bad odour etc., due to the dumpsite and now the area looks nice and they got rid of all the problems faced earlier.
- Mr.Shyamkumar, another resident staying near Ajith Singh Nagar for the last 22 years said that the work done by Zigma Global is remarkable and now since the entire area has been reclaimed, Agricultural market shall be opened up at the reclaimed land.
- Another shopkeeper Mr.Parasuram in Ajith Singh Nagar opined that the people of the area are more relieved now after the reclamation work of the dumpsite done by Zigma Global. He also said that even water was getting polluted earlier due to the dumpsite and that issue has been resolved now as the water in the area is good and potable now. He further added that the frequent issue faced by the people of the area in the form of smoke emanating from the dumpsite no more exits and they are relieved a lot.
- Ms.Swapna, a resident of Ajith Singh Nagar informed that even her friends and relatives who used to visit their house used to comment about the bad odour emanating from the dumpsite and now the issue has been resolved and she is happy. She thanked Zigma for the work done by them.
- The Singh Nagar Asst. Sub Inspector opined that the work done by Zigma Global is quite appreciable and whole area looks nice now without any bad odour.
- Ms.Akshaya, a student residing nearby the site said that earlier they were suffering from mosquito bites, smoke etc., which caused deceases and now she is thankful to Zigma Global which has cleared the dump completely during last 2 years with hard work. She said that now the area is completely clean, a park is being constructed in the reclaimed area and also agricultural market is proposed to be developed in the area.
- Another student Ms.Rajashri informed that since birth she is living in Singh Nagar and all along they have been facing issues due to the dumpsite in the form of smoke, mosquito bites causing malaria, dengue etc., and also faced issues due to continuous smoke from the dumpsite which caused suffocation. She added that due to the work done by Zigma Global, now the area is clean and neat. She further said that a park for Children is being constructed in the area along with agricultural market which will be very useful to them.
- Mr.Venugopal, a temple priest at Vambay Colony informed that the work done by Zigma Global is appreciable as they have segregated the waste into Stones, Soil, Metal pieces, Plastics etc., completely and disposed all the segregated materials. He also said the reclaimed land now looks like a big stadium. He further added that during the last 20 years several projects were thought off for the Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite by many, but Zigma Global has segregated and completely cleared all the 3,00,000 tonnes of waste from the dumpsite that remained at the dumpsite which was achieved by working day and night.
Opinion of Vijayawada Municipal Official:
- Mr.A.S.N.Prasad, Executive Engineer at Vijayawada Municipal Corporation said that the years old dumpsite has been completely reclaimed by Zigma Global by segregating 3,00,000 tonne waste into all sorts of materials out of which the soil segregated was used for filling the low-lying areas and plastics sent to Cement Companies for using as an additional fuel. He further added that Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is planning to construct a park at the reclaimed land.
| Highlights of the project: | |
| Total area reclaimed and handed over to Vijayawada Municipal Corporation | 45 acres |
| Total quantity of waste processed, segregated and disposed | 3,05,897 Tonnes |
| Total value of the contract | Rs. 25.75 Crores |
| Total RDF (refuse derived plastics) sent to Cement companies | 47,212 Tonnes |
| Methane generation avoided | Yes |
| Ground Water pollution avoided | Yes |
Zigma Global had made the processing conducted at the dumpsite completely transparent by providing live access to Vijayawada Municipal Corporation to monitor the trucks bringing the waste to the processing area, weight of waste carried in the trucks etc., This was ensured from the first truck that brought the waste materials to the processing area on day one to the last truck on the day of completion of the work.
During the processing work, Zigma Global followed the CPCB guidelines for disposal of legacy waste 2019 and SWM Rules 2016at the Ajith Singh Nagar Dumpsite plant.
Zigma Global has completed the projects at 3 locations where the dumpsites were adjacent to the Water Bodies and in another 5 locations in the mid land. Till date Zigma Global has cleared more than 25,00,000Metric Tonnes of legacy waste at various sites. Their ongoing projects are at 13 locations in the Country spread across six states.
Zigma Global has been acclaimed with the following awards based on its performance during the past:
Ø Featured under the Best Practices under the Solid Waste Management by the Swachh Bharat Mission in the year 2016
Ø Frost & Sullivan – Best Practices Award 2016 for Sustainable Waste Management
Ø Indian Leadership Award For Industrial Development from All India Achievers Foundation in the year 2017
Ø Award for ‘Excellence’ from Municipalika during 2017 for “Best Municipal Solutions”
Ø The company’s Noida project was awarded the best Smart City project in 2019
Ø The company’s Vijayawada Project was awarded with the Mayor Puraskar in 2019
Ø The company’s project in Tirupati featured in the Swachh Bharat Mission Advisory for Landfill Reclamation drafted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India in 2020
Ø The company got featured in the Book of Innovations at the INK@WASH event organized by the Government of Telengana in the Municipal Solid Waste solutions for the year 2020
The project carried over by Zigma Global contributed to Vijayawada in climbing to the 4th position in the SwachhSurvekshan 2020 ranking among the top 10 Cities with more than 10 lakh population. In the top 25 Cities with more than one lakh population category, the City secured 6th rank for the year 2020.
The Co2 emission saved as a result of processing 3,05,897 Metric tonnes of legacy waste is equivalent to:
Ø 66,087 passenger vehicles driver for one year (or)
Ø 3,00,48,821 gallons of diesel consumed (or)
Ø 7,08,216 barrels of Oil consumed (or)
Ø 66 Wind turbines running for an year (or)
Ø 50,58,072 tree seedlings grown for 10 years (or)
Ø 2,069 acres of forests preserved from conversion to cropland in one year
Overall Zigma Global has successfully reclaimed the Ajith Singh Nagar dumpsite completely and handed over the reclaimed land to Vijayawada Municipal Corporation. The support and guidance provided by the authorities of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation to Zigma Global in completing the project was astronomical and appreciable without which the project would not have been envisaged and completed successfully.
