Bhubaneswar: A joint committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has recommended the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to phase down waste processing operations at its Kapilaprasad facility and divert incoming wet waste to an upcoming green energy project.
The recommendations were submitted on September 11 in an inspection report before the NGT’s East Zone Bench, which has taken the findings on record and set October 16 for the final hearing.
The NGT panel was formed on May 26 to investigate allegations of severe environmental violations and persistent foul odour stemming from two micro compost centres (MCCs) and a material recovery facility (MRF) operating inside Ward 67’s Kapilaprasad Housing Board Colony. The inquiry followed a petition filed by 71-year-old resident Rajkishore Swain, represented by advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy, who alleged that the facilities had been functioning in a heavily populated residential area without mandatory authorisation from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) or compliance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
An on-site inspection conducted on July 3 by OSPCB Bhubaneswar regional officer Sohan Giri and additional district magistrate Ramesh Chandra Jena confirmed that the Kapilaprasad MCC is tightly surrounded by residential homes and that local residents have suffered from recurring odour issues since 2021. The panel directed the BMC to submit an application within 60 days under Rule 16 of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and secure necessary consent under the Water Act, 1974, and Air Act, 1981, if the site’s combined capacity exceeds five tonnes per day.
Furthermore, the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority were asked to clarify the land-use classification, including whether the location falls under a protected Heritage Zone or previously served as a natural rainwater channel. Pending these regulatory clearances, the BMC has been instructed to freeze processing capacities at the site, enforce strict vector and odor control measures, and install proper stormwater and leachate management systems.
To permanently address the community’s grievances, the committee pointed to a long-term alternative currently underway in the city.
The BMC, in a public-private partnership with Oil India Limited (OIL), is constructing a 175-crore rupee, 300 tonne-per-day (TPD) Compressed Biogas (CBG) plant at Meherpalli. The foundation stone for the 10-acre waste-to-energy project was virtually laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2026, and consent to establish the facility has already been granted. Targeted for commercial production by April 2027, the Meherpalli plant will utilise advanced anaerobic digestion to process up to 200 metric tonnes of daily municipal organic waste into renewable biogas and bio-fertilisers.
The NGT panel recommended that municipal authorities evaluate how much wet waste can be rerouted from Kapilaprasad to Meherpalli once the CBG plant becomes operational, allowing for a phased shutdown of the neighbourhood composting unit.
