A fire broke out again at Brahmapuram Waste Treatment Plant on Sunday, 26 March, barely a couple of weeks after a devastating blaze lasted at the site for days before being extinguished.
The police said eight fire tenders had been pressed into service to douse the fire, which was detected at sector seven inside the plant.
The Brahmapuram plant was in the news when a massive fire had broken out there on 2 March and thereafter, the air quality in the port city of Kochi and neighbouring municipalities and gram panchayats worsened.
They were engulfed in dense smoke billowing from the garbage dump.
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‘Under control’
“A few fire tenders were already present at the plant to monitor the situation. Senior fire force officials, revenue department and city corporation officials are currently there,” District Collector NSK Umesh told reporters on Sunday.
A police officer said it was a minor incident and that fire tenders were dousing the blaze.
Meanwhile, Kerala Local Self Governments Minister MB Rajesh told reporters that the fire situation was under control.
“We had anticipated this and precautions were in place. There is nothing to worry about like the last one,” he said.
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NGT fines KMC ₹100 crore
Earlier, the Kochi Municipal Corporation, which was under the scanner for the Brahmapuram waste-plant fire that raged for 12 days, was ordered by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to pay a fine of ₹100 crore.
In response, the corporation termed the fine impractical.
The NGT penalised the corporation for its failure in handling solid waste, which caught fire, causing damage to the environment.
On 7 March, Kerala High Court observed that the fire had put Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala, in a gas chamber-like situation.
The green tribunal also observed that the state of Kerala and the authorities concerned had been an “utter failure” and “rampantly violated the solid waste management rules”.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on 15 March, announced a three-tier probe by different agencies into the fire.
A special investigation team (SIT) of the state police would investigate the criminal case registered in connection with the fire that broke out on 2 March, he told the state Assembly.
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(With PTI inputs)
