Bhubaneswar: Keeping in view the paucity of space and environmental concerns over unclaimed animal carcasses in the Capital city, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for establishment of two LPG-based animal carcass incinerators.
Issuing the EoI, the BMC stated that it’s looking for interested parties for establishing, operating and maintaining two incinerators of 50 kg/hr and 350 kg/hr capacities. Sources at the BMC said that the plants are part of Smart City projects and aimed at improvement in Swachh Bharat rankings.
“Tenders for the same will be floated once the interested parties are finalised. This is done in view of rising cases of animal deaths in the city. Until now we bury the carcasses near the Temporary Transit Stop (TTS) at Sainik School but observing the shortage of space we have decided to construct incinerators,” said a senior vet officer at the BMC.
As per the sources, the BMC’s health wing collects around 400 carcasses every month. Out of these, 230 are that of the dogs while the others were of bigger animals like stray bulls. Moreover, a steep increase in umber of stray dogs and their deaths have also aggravated the problem.
“Once established, the incinerators will reduce the time, space and manpower needed to bury the animal carcasses. While the carcasses of dogs and cats are easy to be disposed of, the issue largely arises in doing away with larger animals such as bulls and cows. The plants, however, will incinerate animals in accordance with the guidelines issued by the State Pollution Control Board and Central Pollution Control Board,” the officer added.
It is worth mentioning here that Bhubaneswar, which ranked Number 1 in smart cities list in the country in 2016, has slipped to 311 and 166 spots in terms of cleanliness in the first and second quarters of Swachh Survekshan Leagure 2020. The Swachh Survekshan parameters include wastewater treatment and reuse, solid waste management and faecal sludge management as key components for judging a city’s cleanliness.