The godown, functioning on 50 cents, stockpiled tonnes of plastic waste and glass bottle items on 20,000 sq ft. Nobody was injured. The fire broke out at the godown of GreenEvo Tech around 9am and was still smouldering in the night.
Kochi : A major fire broke out at a private non-degradable waste management unit in Vengola on Monday morning.
We employed nearly five earthmovers to stir the waste and pump water to keep it wet,” said Pattimattom fire station officer Assinar. The unit began functioning a year ago and it secured permission from K-SWIFT single window clearance portal of state govt early this year, according to local body officials. “Initially, it was difficult to approach the godown as glass bottles were exploding. The unit collects the plastic waste collected by Haritha Karma Sena from various parts of the state and transports it to cement factories in Tamil Nadu.
As the opposition from the locals intensified due to stink, we had visited the unit and saw the huge quantity of waste piled up in the godown.
The unit authorities told us that they transport the waste regularly to the cement factories. They were supposed to shut down the functioning by the end of this month,” said panchayat president Shamitha Shereef. She said pregnant women and people with comorbidities have been advised to move to relatives’ houses until the smouldering is controlled. “Smouldering will continue on Tuesday too as it is impossible to completely douse the flames,” she said, adding that there were no fire extinguishers in the unit.
“As there was strong opposition from the locals against the unit, the panchayat had denied it permission. However, they managed to secure permission from K-SWIFT. Following the visit, we had served them a notice to relocate the unit from there.