A high-technology incinerator with the capacity of burning 1,000 tonnes of garbage daily will be built on the outskirts of the federal capital next year to boost management of solid waste.

Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan said a 1.7ha site next to the solid waste transfer station in Taman Beringin, Kepong in Kuala Lumpur, had been proposed as the location for the incinerator.

He said the tender for the project would be open to local and foreign contractors by September at the latest.

“The evaluation will take some time. After the contractor has been selected, it will first have to obtain the Environmental Impact Assessment report and we expect this to take about nine months.

“The physical development can start only after that,” he said after observing Alam Flora Sdn Bhd workers’ daily routine of collecting solid waste in and around Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Alor in Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur today.

The four-hour observation from 6am ended with a visit to the Taman Beringin solid waste transfer station.

In March last year, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ordered that the tender for the building of the incinerator be opened to all in order to get the best offer.

Abdul Rahman said the ministry would also discuss with the relevant parties on the need for a certain mechanism to solve the problem of garbage in excess of capacity at the Taman Beringin waste transfer centre before the incinerator is completed.

“The incinerator can burn 1,000 tonnes of garbage, so it can support the existing capacity at the Taman Beringin transfer centre (the daily capacity of which should be 1,700 tonnes of garbage but now is actually 2,400 tonnes).”

He also said that the ministry would look at the need to implement the Solid Waste Management and Urban Cleansing Act 2007 more seriously, especially with regard to illegal solid waste disposal.

- Bernama