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RE: Chennai Real Estate- News- 2

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Dec 05 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Sahara sells G'gaon land for Rs 1,211 crore

New Delhi

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Sahara is close to meeting the Rs 10,000 crore bail condition set by the Supreme Court for release of its chief Subrata Roy and raised Rs 1,211 crore from the sale of 185acre land on Dwarka Expressway in Gurgaon on Thursday.

In one of the biggest land deals in the national capital region, Sahara sold the plot to M3M group, which was the highest bidder in the auction for the land.

Roy has been in Tihar jail for over last eight months as the firm tried to raise Rs 10,000 crore to fulfil the bail condition. The group is locked in a bitter legal battle with stock market regulator Sebi.

The court had allowed Sahara to sell properties in Jodhpur, Pune, Chauma in Gurgaon and Vasai near Mumbai after it was satisfied that the transactions met the conditions set in its June 4 order.

Sahara had held talks with prospective investors to mortgage and sale its marquee hotel properties in New York and London but the deal has not progressed. It has managed to raise an additional loan of about Rs 3,800 crore against these properties and is awaiting the top court’s approval on the issue. CMD of M3M, Basant Bansal said there were other bidders in the fray but his firm bid aggressively as a project on this land would be an attractive proposition.

M3M will have to pay the money in six installments in next six months. Once the entire payment is made, the land will be transferred to the company by Sahara India. “We intend to create mixed-use development consisting of branded residences, serviced apartments, multiplexes, hotels, offices, entertainment centres and other small city type developments,’’ Bansal said.

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CBI arrests general manager of United Bank of India

CBI says he abused his position and as a consequence the bank incurred loss of Rs 93 crore

BS Reporter | <news:geo_locations>Chennai

December 16, 2014

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today arrested Pranab Kumar Roy, general manager, Southern Regional Office, of United Bank of India on charges of corruption. According to CBI, the amount of wrongful loss incurred to the bank during his tenure in various cases due to abuse of official position is Rs 93 crore.

Roy is accused of abusing his official position by sanctioning working capital loan of Rs 20 crore to Capture Systems Pvt. Ltd., for its “Ethanol Turnkey Project” by fraudulently and dishonestly violating all banking norms and thereby causing a wrongful loss of Rs 9.44 crore to the bank.

Pranab Kumar Roy is also involved in many other bank fraud cases in different places and same are being investigated byCBI branches at Chennai and Bangalore, said CBI statement.

The amount of wrongful loss incurred to the bank in all these cases togethere is Rs 93 crore.

He has been arrested today and produced before the Additional Special Judge for CBI cases, Chennai and remanded to judicial custody.

Investigation is in progress, said CBI sources.

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Dec 18 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Global investors buy $2bn office space in '14

Anshul Dhamija & Boby Kurian

Bengaluru:

TNN

Blackstone, Brookfield Lead Four-Fold Jump

Foreign investors have bought tenanted office space worth over $2 billion in India in the current calendar 7a four-fold rise compared to the previous year in their appetite for rent-yielding commercial assets in Asia's third largest economy.

Data sourced by TOI suggests that $2.25 billion or over Rs 14,000 crore worth of built and tenanted office space has been bought by foreign and, to a small extent, Indian investors across the country's key metros of NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai and Kochi.The comparative number during 2013 stood at $570 million, signalling how the office property market has come of age in the current calendar.

With a burgeoning middle-class, India's residential property market has always been the go-to investment destination for bulge-bracket global fund houses and small-fry Indian retail investors. But that's changing at least for the big global investors who have taken a liking to India's commercial assets, which is riding on the services economy with stable yields.

Two of the world's largest and prolific real estate investors -New Yorkbased Blackstone Group and Canadian firm Brookfield Asset Management -alone have bought into buildings with an asset value of almost $2 billion or Rs 12,000 crore. While Brookfield picked up six IT SEZ assets from NCR-based property developer Unitech valued at $850 million, its rival Blackstone bought into office assets worth $870 million. The figures mentioned are the asset value of the acquired properties and not the size of eq uity cheques cut by them.

“This would be a record year for the commercial property market. It also shows that foreign capital was less risk averse and preferred to invest in stable rent-yielding office assets,“ said Anshuman Magazine, CMD of property consultancy firm CBRE South Asia.Investor sentiment has also been bolstered by Indian market regulator Sebi issuing guidelines for the listing of real estate investment trusts (REITs) and the Union government's decision to ease FDI restrictions in real estate.

Blackstone-backed Embassy Office Parks, RMZ Offices, in which Qatar Investment Authority is an investor, and K Raheja Corp have all been working on various listing or value unlocking moves, but are waiting for more clarity on the tax implications of an Indian REIT before beginning a formal process.

Blackstone's asset buys in 2014 include the iconic Express Towers in Mumbai ($150 million), the 106acre Vrindavan Tech Village in Bengaluru along with its southern JV partner Embassy group ($300 million), and Oxygen IT SEZ in Noida ($100 million), among others. Xander, another global fund house, bought the TRIL IT Park in Mumbai from the Tatas, valued at $100 million. There's more action building up in the new year as private investors, pension funds, Wall Street banks and sovereign wealth managers are deploying more capital to chase Indian commercial real estate.

Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) along with Shapoorji Pallonji and Dutch pension fund APG and GIC of Singapore are among the investors who have committed fresh capital.

The Indian economy seems to be the only one among all major emerging economies that is poised for improved growth in the next financial year, said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of JLL India, adding that “we are definitely going to see some interesting office space action in 2015“. The current weakness in the Indian rupee too provides foreign investors with the opportunity to invest deeply in Indian commercial real estate assets, Puri said.

India's office property market is still minuscule even when compared to the neighbouring South East Asian region, pegged at $125 billion. Reason: Almost 80% of the 400 million sqft A-grade office space in the country is held through strata titles, a form of ownership where each floor of a building is owned by multiple investors.

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Dec 18 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)

It's a boom time for serviced apartments

Sushma UN

Chennai:

Finds Favour Among Corporate Travellers

The tide is in again, for the serviced apartments sector in India. With the mood of optimism in the economy setting in, and the resultant increase in corporate activity , serviced residences are seeing an increase in occupancy rates as more people are traveling on work.

The Ascot Limited, which manages the Somerset Greenways in Chennai is a case in point. The company is seeing occupancies of about 75% with CEOs and other top executives of several companies checking into the serviced residences, Ajit Koushik, area general managerIndia of Ascott International Management India said.

Serviced residences as a concept are popular globally and are now regaining popularity in India -as they offer guests the comfort of a house as the rooms come attached with a kitchenette and facilities like security , while offering them facilities like laundry and housekeeping like in a five star hotel and is ideal for expats who come to India for a year or so to work on the operations in India. People who come to India for longer stays, even up to a year, prefer serviced apartments over hotels and since now more corporate executives are traveling to India on work, the sector is seeing a boom. Consequently, standalone serviced apartment companies like The Ascot are expanding their presence across the country .

In addition to standalone serviced apartment properties, several hotel chains are offering a section of their suites as serviced residences, and are even launching new properties that will be operated as serviced apartments. GRT Hotels & Resorts, for instance, is setting up serviced residence properties under the brand name GRT Vibes, in Hyderabad and Coimbatore, investing close to Rs 10 crore for each project. Five star hotels like Marriot, Hyatt and ITC which offer serviced apartments within their hotels and are seeing good growth.Hotels are motivated to offer serviced-apartments to guests as that would bring them assured occupancy . For instance, a guest might check out of a hotel for a week on holiday , but wouldn't move out of the serviced apartment even if he were to go on vacation for a week or more.

“Any guests who wishes to stay for longer than 15 days is suggested a serviced apartment. It works well as expats who have just come in to India need not set up a house from scratch and for the hotel, revenues are better,“ a spokesperson from the ITC Grand Chola in Chennai said.

“We have five apartments in the hotel now and all of them are taken. Going forward too, we expect between 200 and 300 long-stay guests.There is clearly an increase in corporate activity in India and this will benefit the serviced apartments sector,“ Prakash Jayadevan, General Manager at Courtyard by Marriott Chennai said.

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MRF to buy Sterling Towers for Rs90 crore
Nov 26, 2014 The Times Of India

MRF to buy Sterling Towers for Rs90 crore

India's largest tyre maker MRF is in an advanced stage of negotiations to buy Sterling Towers on Anna Salai, NRI businessman C Sivasankaran's headquarters.
      â€œThe transaction is in its final leg and could be announced anytime. The deal size is nearly `90 crore, making it one of the biggest on the arterial stretch,â€œ a source said. The funds raised through the sale will be used to repay debt the seller has with Axis Bank, it is learnt.
      Sivasankaran (known as Siva in business circles and who does not hold any shares in any of his businesses) filed for bankruptcy protection in a Seychelles court to ward off a claim by his Bahrain-based telecom partner Batelco, which won a court decree for its $212million claim on its investment in S Tel, for which he stood personal guarantee.S Tel's telecom licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court in the 2G case. Sivasankaran, 59, a resident of Seychelles, filed for insolvency in a court there in early August. The Supreme Court of Seychelles ordered him insolvent on August 26 and has since appointed a receiver.
      Sterling Towers, owned by Siva Industries and Holdings, was promoted by Arihant Foundations and was purchased by Sivasankaran for `24 crore in the late 1990s.Built on 26,275 square feet of land, the iconic building in Teynampet abuts the Gemini flyover.The 13-storey tower has 92,300sqft of built-up area and a swimming pool on the roof.
      MRF could not be contacted for confirmation and offi cials of the Siva group were tight-lipped on the deal. â€œAt nearly `10,000sqft, both parties must have a winning feeling. Such transactions trigger interest in the sector,â€œ S Ramaswamy, chief consultant at RECS Group, a real estate consultancy said.
      New properties are fetching around `12,500sqft in the vicinity of Sterling Towers, he said.

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Mahindra arm, Sumitomo Corp to set up industrial park in Chennai

Companies to invest about Rs 375 crore

T E Narasimhan | <news:geo_locations>Chennai

May 28, 2015 Last Updated at 12:50 ISTMahindra World City today said it will set up an industrial park near Chennai along with Sumitomo Corporation at an investment of about Rs 375 crore.

The joint venture will be called Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai Ltd. Mahindra World City Developers will hold 60% in the company while 40% will be held by Sumitomo Corporation.

The park will be spread across 300 acres of land in North Chennai.

Akito Shiraishi, general manager - overseas Industrial Park Department, Sumitomo Corporation said that this is the company's first venture in the industrial park space in India.

Tamil Nadu is one of the preferred destinations for Japanese investors in India. The state houses nearly 557 Japanese companies.

Mahindra World City (MWC), which was set up by Mahindra Lifespace Developers, the real estate and infrastructure arm of Mahindra Group, has already set up one project in South Chennai at Maramalai Nagar. MWC, Chennai is a joint venture betweel MLDL and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) spread over 1,500 acres of land and includes SEZs and DTAs.

The city houses more than 64 blue chip companies including BASF, BMW, Fujitec, Infosys, Renault-Nissan's R&D facility and others. So far it has attracted investments worth Rs 5,000 crore and generated cumulative exports of Rs 34,000 crore.

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Jun 09 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Engg college loses AICTE approval

Coimbatore:

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Coimbatore Institution Located On Jumbo Corridor, Building Lacks Permission

All India Council for Technical Education has withdrawn the approval for Indus College of Engineering at Alandurai in Coimbatore district.Authorities at the college said that AICTE had not renewed the approval for the upcoming academic year, but claimed it was only a temporary problem and would not affect the students.

However, highly placed sources in the AICTE and Anna University said the college was likely to face disaffiliation. They said the move was triggered by the action of Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) that wrote to AICTE saying the college did not have building approvals.

Indus College of Engineering also did not have an approval from the Hill Area Conservation Authority (HACA) though the college is located very much on an elephant corridor.

“DTCP mentioned this fact in the letter and requested that the college not be allowed to admit new students for the upcoming year,“ said an AICTE official. “We have also decided to act on DTCP's recommendation that the existing students of the college be shifted to other colleges affiliated with Anna University,“ he said.

Indus saw two of its buildings being sealed by DTCP and the district administration only in August last year, because they had no building approvals. “We are surprised how they managed to obtain approval from AICTE in the past with these unapproved build ings,“ said environmentalist K Mohanraj. “They even have a compound wall close to the forests and elephants often come close to it,“ he said. The district administration also said it planned to approach Anna University to disaffiliate the college and not allow admission of new students.

However, when contacted by TOI, college authorities said they were working on getting DTCP approval within the next one week.

“AICTE has not renewed our application for approval because DTCP has not approved our buildings,“ admitted chairman of Indus College, V P Prabhakaran.“We have applied to the town planning authorities for an approval and they even inspected our buildings today. Meanwhile, AICTE has called us to New Delhi for a meeting on June 15 and the officials have promised us to renew our approval,“ he said. “Our existing students and admissions should not face any problem,“ he said.

As many as 700 students are studying in the college, pursuing BE and MBA courses. The college located on 17.45 acres was built in 2008 with a total constructed area of 1.56 lakh sqft comprising three academic blocks, a two-storied girls' hostel and a boys' hostel.

DTCP had sent the college notices in 2008, 2012 and 2013 to get the required approval, but the institution had apparently ignored them maintaining that they have obtained panchayat approval.

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Puravankara buys 31.69 acres land in Chennai for Rs 110 crore

April 27, 2015 17:06 IST

Realty firm Puravankara Projects on Monday said it has acquired 31.69 acres land in Chennai for Rs. 110 crore to develop affordable homes.

The Bengaluru-based firm has raised Rs. 82.5 crore from private equity (PE) firm ASK group to fund this land deal.

In a filing to the BSE, Puravankara said it has “acquired around 31.69 acres of land in Chennai’s prime location, Poonamallee with a developmental potential of 3.3 million sq ft.”

The project would be developed under the ‘Provident’ brand in three phases to provide affordable housing.

“The acquisition cost of land stands at Rs. 110 crore”.

The average selling price of the units would be in the range of Rs. 4,500 per sq ft and the project is expected to generate revenues of Rs. 1,500 crore, Puravankara said.

“We are excited to enter into our first strategic private equity (PE) partnership,” the company’s Joint Managing Director Ashish Puravankara said.

When contacted, Puravankara CEO Jackbastian K Nazareth said the company has roped in ASK group to buy the land and has raised Rs. 82.5 crore from the PE firm.

ASK Group may invest more in this project if needed, he added.

Puravankara has entered into PE partnerships for these new acquisitions as part of its strategy to rope in strategic private equity players to meet growth objectives and strengthen balance sheet.

The project is expected to be launched by the end of this fiscal and be completed within 60 months.

Besides Bengaluru, Puravankara Projects has presence in Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mysore, Mumbai and Pune.

It has 24.87 million sq ft of projects under development with additional 81.83 million sq ft in projected development over the next few years.

Its wholly-owned subsidiary Provident Housing was established in 2008 to develop mid-segment housing.

Keywords: Puravankara Projects, Chennai, Bengaluru, Puravankara CEO Jackbastian K Nazareth

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Jun 09 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Banks can bring in foreign promoters after taking over defaulting cos: RBI

Mumbai:

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The RBI on Mon day unveiled the much-talk ed-about “strategic debt res tructuring“ scheme which paves the way for banks to trigger a change in manage ment of chronically default ing companies. New norms announced by the RBI allow ing banks to convert debt o defaulting companies into eq uity also include provisions to bring in foreign promoters with stake as low as 26%.

The guidelines allow banks to use a formula for pricing under the RBI rule and effect the conversion at a price based on the reference date--the day at which lend ers decide to originally res tructure the loan. Recently market regulator Sebi had allowed such pricing of shares only if it was under the RBI rules. The latest directive from the RBI allows banks to bring in strategic international investors in a sector which has a cap on foreign direct investment. The new RBI guidelines will help banks avoid a “Kingfisher-type situation“ where banks were compelled by the old Sebi pricing formula to convert loans at a 60% premium to market value although the airline was on a crash course.

Shares of some defaulting companies such as Bhushan Steel and Gitanjali Gems closed higher on Monday following the norms. While Bhushan Steel was up 18%, Gitanjali rose by 7%.

Banks will also not have to worry about holding more than 20% stake as the norms exempt them from maintaining investor-associate relationship. Equity shares acquired under these norms are also exempt from mark-to-market rules for 18 months and banks need not make provisions if the market price falls.

“In many cases of restructuring of accounts, borrower companies are unable to come out of stress due to managerial inefficiencies despite substantial sacrifices by lending banks. In such cases, change of ownership will be a preferred option,“ the central bank said.

To facilitate a change of ownership, the RBI has said that while restructuring loans, lenders should jointly incorporate in the restructuring agreement an option to convert the debt to equity if the borrower is not able to achieve the viability milestones or adhere to the critical conditions in the agreement. If such a clause has already been incorporated, banks can apply the provisions of the latest circular to earlier defaults as well.

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Jun 09 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Banks stare at fresh Rs 1.5L crore NPAs

Sidhartha

New Delhi:

TNN

Banks are facing the prospect of at least Rs 1.5 lakh crore of their loans to around two dozen power projects turning non-performing on account of a new rule that mandates them to provide for bad debts if the project cost exceeds 10% of the original estimate due to delays.

Bankers said the issue -which has been flagged to RBI as well as top government officials -is much bigger as several smaller projects too are unable to get fresh funding from lenders which fear an impact on their profitability. “RBI had allowed us to fund projects that are delayed but which nies such as NTPC. Some of the projects are delayed by up to four years from the scheduled date of commercial operation.

Banks are grappling with record NPAs, resulting in Bank of India reporting its first loss in two decades. Other top lenders such as ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank witnessed a sharp fall in profits as they had to set aside funds for loans that had turned sticky . Banks have to provide for potential bad debts in a gradual manner to ensure that they don't have to take a one-time hit that impacts depositors.

According to sources, banks have put together a list of projects, which are held up due to RBI's rule, after they flagged it at a meeting convened by financial services secretary Hasmukh Adhia recently. The list includes projects which are under implementation as well those that have been completed but are unable to commence operations due to want of further funds.

Banks and private players have blamed delay in government clearances, such as those related to environment and forest, fuel supply and land acquisition for and sought government intervention for the revival of the so-called stalled projects.

The inability of the private sector to commission projects has slowed down investment in the economy .

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-- Edited by Admin on Wednesday 8th of July 2015 12:43:47 PM

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Jul 22 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Buildings without EIA: Nodal officer appointed by court

Manish Raj

Chennai:

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in New Delhi has appointed the state director of environment as the nodal officer of the five-member committee formed to inspect building projects constructed without environmental impact assessment (EIA). The principal bench also warned the authorities of contempt proceedings if its directions were not followed.

Earlier this month, the tribunal had set aside two office memorandums from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) which said post facto environmental clearance could be provided to buildings which commenced construction works.It also directed seven building proponents to pay five per cent of their projects as fine to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) for not getting the environment clearance.

It slapped fines of `6.9 crore on Dugar Housing, `4.5 crore on SAS Realtors, `36 crore on SSM Builders and Promoters, `12.6 crore on SPR and RG Construction, `7 crore on Jones Foundations, `7.4 crore on Y Pondurai and `1.8 crore on Ruby Manoharan Property Developers. All further construction, purchase and sales of the projects has to be stopped immediately , said the tribunal.

It also asked the state government to form a five-member committee comprising member-secretaries from TNPCB and State EIA Authority and representatives from Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), MoEF and IIT Mumbai. The committee was asked to submit a report on the violations and environmental damage to NGT within 45 days.

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Jul 22 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

CONTENTIOUS ISSUE - Red tapism stunts FDI in realty sector

Chennai:

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Despite the Centre relaxing FDI norms by providing easy exit options and opening up investment in the affor dable housing segment, very little FDI is flowing into the real estate and construction sector in the state. This is attributed to the fact that there has not been any change in the approach by the state government, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI) and CBRE have stated in a report.

The report said Tamil Nadu had attracted $12.72 bn FDI between 2000 and 2014 primarily in the manufacturing and electronics sectors, but hardly 13% of that flowed into the realty sector. “A major reason for the poor show could be absence of a single window clearance mechanism for largescale infrastructure and urban development projects,“ the report said. The lack of clarity on policy programmes, multiplicity of authorities from whom clearances have to be obtained and high transaction costs could be probable reasons for poor inflow of investment into the real estate sector. it added.

Apart from demanding a single window for issuing building plan approval, the re port has also called for drastic changes in the development control rules of the regulatory agencies. “Developers have been demanding increase in permissible height of ground+3 floor and stilt+4 floor buildings from the present 15.25m to 17m to facilitate flexible beam design, and airconditioner ducts,“ said CREDAI Tamil Nadu secretary S Sridharan. “ Also, multi-level stilt car parking facility should be exempted from height restrictions to encourage more developers to avail such facilities,“ he said. “In AP , Telangana and Delhi, lowrise buildings are permitted to go up to 17.25 m in height,“ said SSPDL MD Prakash Challa.

“Unfortunately , the pre cious time of regulatory agencies is lost in processing building plans rather than doing city planning and enforcing them. The approval process should be outsourced to a third party ,“ said CREDAI Chennai secretary W S Habib.

Location of open space reserve (OSR), meant to be maintained as parks in major developments, is another contentious issue. The regulatory agencies insist that OSR should be located right on the main road to facilitate entry of outsiders as well. But developers have a different take. “OSR is a lung space within a project and it should be beneficial to the end users of the project,“ said Devinarayan housing MD N Nandakumar.

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Jul 24 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Owners block action on illegal bldg, get HC rap

A Subramani

Chennai:

Told To Identify Men Who Prevented Sealing By Threatening Officials With Cases Under SCST Act A fortnight after a group of people `wearing white shirts and black trousers' descended on a building with floor violations and prevented city corporation authorities from sealing the structure, the Madras high court took the building owners to task by summoning them and obtained an undertaking that they would identify the people who obstructed the sealing work.

It all began early this month, when the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam passed an order on a PIL filed by social activist K R `Traffic' Ramaswamy , and ordered sealing of a building at 45, Vaidhyanathan Street in George Town. It asked the jurisdictional executive engineer to seal the building for floor vi olations and file a report in court.

However, when executive engineer B T Raman reached the spot with a posse of police personnel, one of the owners of the building made a phone call and the men in black and white arrived. Narrating this to the bench on July 10, Raman said police told the corporation officers that the `advocates' would foist cases under the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The sealing, therefore, did not take place, he said.

The judges, expressing disbelief that it could be advocates who obstructed officials from discharging duties assigned to them by the court, had summoned the building owners to be personally present in court on Thursday to explain their conduct. On Thursday , however, two housewives presented themselves saying they were building owners. Their husbands were managing the business, they said.

The bench has now summoned the housewives along with their husbands to be present in court on August 7, adding: “The owners and their husbands also have to give an undertaking that they will cooperate with police to identify the people who obstructed the process of sealing earlier.“

The judges also directed sealing of the building on Friday itself, “with full police protection“. At this, senior counsel M Ravindran, representing the building owners, wanted a week's time to vacate the premises. The court granted the plea saying they had given an undertaking to the court not to interfere with the process in any manner whatsoever. “We permit one week's time and the sealing action will now take place on July 30, 2015,“ the bench said.

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Jul 24 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

New waste rules puts onus on citizens, firms

S Gopikrishna Warrier

Likely To Make Poorly Performing TN Cities Leapfrog To A Cleaner Future

If the Union ministry of environment has its way , there is likely to be a time, in the not too distant future, when families will be forced to segregate their garbage, pay a user fee for waste collection, and for using plastic bags.Further, for every new electronic good, they would need to pay a deposit while purchasing, which will be refunded only if the waste is channelled appropriately at the end of the product's life.

These are some of the steps conceptualised in the ministry's new set of draft rules on waste management.These new rules that would replace the existing ones have been posted for public comments until July 31 by the ministry and are being prepared for notification under the Environment Protection Act of 1986.

If they get notified in their present form, the rules will add a new dimension to waste management in the country's cities. This will impact TN cities which are presently drowning in their wastes, with the city corporations practising only collection and disposal into landfills.

According to the figures posted by the respective corporations, every day Chennai generates 4,500 tonnes of solid waste, Coimbatore 601 tonnes, Madurai 450 tonnes and Trichy 436 tonnes. While the corporations have put in place mechanisms for collection of waste and disposal in landfills, systems for segregation and treatment are lacking. As a result, plastic waste and discarded electronic goods also find their way along with general wastes.

The new rules stipulate that all waste generators, including households and institutions, have to separate their waste. The collection bins would need to be colour-coded green for biodegradable waste, blue for recyclable waste and black for street sweepings. The city corporations will have to work harder when the new rules are implemented. They will have to prepare solid waste management plans, frame by-laws, prescribe and collect user fees, and develop the infrastructure for collection, storage transportation and disposal.

They will have to establish and run facilities for dealing with waste, either by themselves or through a private sector partner. This would be through bio methanation, digestion or vermicomposting for organic waste, and through waste-to-energy (WTE) plants for other waste. The rules specify that any nonrecyclable waste with high calorific value will need to be used for generating waste rather than being dumped in landfills.

Corporations have shied away from exploring WTE options in the past, and have thus failed to explore options for dealing with waste. The Chennai Corporation had a proposal for a WTE plant a decade ago, but it did not materialise.

The rules for managing plastic and electronic waste have introduced the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR), making the producers of plastic bags and electronic goods responsible for the environmentally safe management of their products throughout its life cycle. Thus, there is onus on those manufacturing plastic bags to work out methods to collect plastic waste.

Similarly, manufacturers of electronic goods would be responsible for the collection and channelization of ewaste at the end of life of their products.This could either be done individually , collectively or through an e-waste exchange. To encourage the customer to return the e-waste to the proper channels, there could be a deposit-refund scheme built into the price of electronic goods.

Like with other forms of solid waste, the city corporations will be responsible for establishing facilities for treating and disposing plastic and e-waste. For plastics this would mean ensuring that registered recyclers handle all recyclables, and all that can be used for road construction and energy generation is used accordingly . (The author is regional environ ment manager with Panos South Asia.

Views are personal)

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-- Edited by Admin on Monday 18th of January 2016 02:49:44 PM

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