09 February 2005	Wednesday	29 Zilhaj 1425

LAHORE, Feb 8: Work on the first-ever compost plant to be set up at a cost of Rs250 million in the provincial metropolis will commence by the end of this month.

The plant based on the Belgian technology will go into operation by March next year producing an average 150 tons of fertilizer daily from 700 to 100 tons of solid waste to be supplied by the Solid Waste Management.

SWM District Officer Muhammad Rafiq Jatoi has written to private sector company Lahore Compost to take possession of 300 kanals at its Mahmood Booti landfill site for starting construction of the plant on build-operate and transfer (BOT) basis as the Lahore High Court has given its verdict in its favour.

The company had approached the district Nazim for handing over of possession of the site after having arranged financing for the project and opening letter of credit for the supply of machinery and equipment and completing environment impact survey towards the end of last year.

The CDG had signed the MoU for the establishment of the compost plant on March 11 last year but continued delaying the transfer of land in view of litigation pending since 1995. The former owners wanted 636 kanals of Mahmood Booti landfill site back on the ground that it had been acquired for scientific disposal of solid waste and the ex-Metropolitan Corporation Lahore had failed to utilize it for the purpose.

A commission, headed by Dr.Pervez Hassan and constituted by the Lahore High Court in 2003, submitted its recommendations favouring the establishment of the compost plant for scientific disposal of the solid waste last year.

The court could not announce its judgment in the light of the recommendations of the commission on account of the elevation of the judge entrusted with the hearing of the case to the supreme court. The case was then heard by Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry.

Meanwhile, the CDG senior legal adviser Khawaja Muhammad Afzal moved an application for seeking the permission of the court to transfer the possession of 200 kanals for the proposed plant and another 100 kanals for storage of waste on the ground that it had signed the agreement for its establishment on March 11 this year following the receipt of the recommendations of the commission recommending the establishment of the plant on a piece of cultivated land at the Mahmood Booti landfill site based on the study of the site carried out by Nespak and the environmental impact assessment report.