Sunny days ahead for Peenya

Sunny days ahead for Peenya
After a TOI exposé, Peenya Industrial Estate can finally look forward to better drainage, roads and, hopefully, an organised waste management system
The TImes of India


It has been three months since The Times of India exposed the rotting mess that’s choking lives and business at what’s considered one of Asia’s largest industrial parks: Peenya Industrial Estate. The story had an immediate impact.
The day the story appeared, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) officials visited Peenya and inspected the Nelagadaranahalli lake and other areas which had become dumping grounds for industrial and other waste.
Within a week, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner K Jairaj called a meeting of representatives of BBMP, Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and cleared a long-pending project of Rs 5.5 crore to create an underground drainage system.
Today, several projects have taken off. Though plenty remains to be done to raise the standards of the industrial area to a respectable level, one can begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Underground drainage system
The contractor for the Rs 5.5-crore underground drainage system project has been finalised and work on the same has started. Of the total funding, Rs 2.5 crore will come from BBMP and Rs 2.6 crore from KIADB. BWSSB will fund any cost escalation that may happen and will also maintain the project once it is completed. Peenya Industries Association president P S Srikanta Dutta said the project is expected to be completed in ten months.
But the project covers only 20% of the industrial area — the part that fell under the BMP’s jurisdiction when the project was conceived. The remaining part was then under the Dasarahalli CMC. For this latter part, which now is a constituent of the new BBMP, officials are looking at some World Bank programme to provide funds. For now, it’s far from clear when that would happen.
Better and well-lit roads
A BBMP official said that apart from the Rs 5.5 crore provided to BWSSB for the underground drainage project, 136 new tubelights have been allotted to line the Peenya streets so as to make Peenya safer in the evenings, particularly for women. “A sum of Rs 1.2 lakh has been allotted to Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) to make sure that the streets are well lit,” he said.
Work on the Rs 26.3-crore Peenya Infrastructure Corridor Ugradation Project has also begun. Of the total amount, Rs 20 crore will be used to improve 40 km of roads. Dutta said cleaning of shoulder drains and pothole filling is being done. “A hot mix plant has just arrived and asphalting will begin soon. We expect the work to be complete in two-and-a-half months,” he said.
Waste management
The other Rs 6 crore is being used for solid waste management and greening initiatives as well as to set up a working women’s hostel and a common manufacturing tool room. Dutta said work on all of these had begun.
As part of the greening initiative, two acres near Vijaya Rolling Mill that was full of waste has been cleaned up. The fencing of the area has started. The plan is to develop the area into a park with a jogging track.
Another five-acre area, which again was full of debris, has been cleaned up to be used for a solid waste management programme. The idea is to use the area to collect all industrial waste, segregate these into biodegradable and other categories, and then transport it to government allotted land fills. “We will levy user charges to collect the waste from individual units,” Dutta said.
However, a major disappointment remains the lack of any progress on the Nelagadaranahalli lake. The Pollution Control Board had told PIA that they would coordinate with the Lake Development Authority to rejuvenate the lake. But nothing appears to have been done yet.
Some weeks after the TOI story in January, Shantha A S of Ducom Instruments, which has a facility near the lake, told us, “Dumping continues and now half the road is blocked with garbage. The heap is set on fire every morning. Without any control on what is dumped, I’m sure the lake ecosystem has been destroyed. It will only be a matter of time before the ground water becomes poisonous.”
Dutta says that about a month ago, the KSPCB chairman had agreed to clean up the lake if the PIA agreed to maintain the lake thereafter. “We have given that commitment. We are willing to adopt the lake and maintain it,” he said.
The common effluent treatment plant is another issue that remains to be addressed. Here, the PIA admits it is partly the association’s fault. The government has a programme for this, under which the association has to pay about 25% of the total cost of the project. “We have not prepared a proposal as yet, but we plan to do that soon,” Dutta said.