PMC to set up chicken, mutton waste processing centre at Uruli Devachi

In a first, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will set up a chicken and mutton waste processing centre at Uruli Devachi. The aim is to process the waste generated after the sale of chicken and mutton in the city.

According to the PMC administration, butchers dump chicken and mutton waste in nullahs, chambers and other places leading to water pollution and subsequent threat to public health due to indiscriminate and unscientific dumping. The mutton waste processing project will ensure scientific disposal of the waste and will not include any burning of the discarded material.

The central government under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan has time and again instructed the civic body to set up a mutton waste processing unit in keeping with environmental safety norms. According to the directives, the project requires 20 gunthas of land with a 200 metre buffer zone. Since there was some public opposition to the project, the PMC administration found the Uruli Devachi facility to be one of most suitable land spaces for setting up the centre.

Six years ago, the civic body had set up a dead animal waste processing centre in Mundhwa at a cost of ₹3 crore which had to be temporarily shut down after some citizens went to court seeking its closure. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has lifted its stay on the project and the project will start within a month’s time with a processing capacity of one tonne, the administration stated.

PMC solid waste management head Sandip Kadam said that a project aimed at processing mutton, chicken and fish waste at Uruli Devachi will begin soon. “Currently, we are preparing a detailed plan for execution of the project and various aspects are being studied,” he said. As per the PMC primary survey, more than 10,000 vendors are selling these items.