The Goa State Pollution Control Board on Wednesday granted the State government ‘consent to establish’ solid waste treatment plants at Calangute/Saligao in North Goa and at Cacora in South Goa. The consent to establish waste treatment plant under Air Act, Water Act and the Hazardous Waste Rules has been granted. The Directorate of Science, Technology and Environment had applied for the consent which was approved at the GSPC Board meeting on Wednesday. Board Chairman Jose Manual Noronha told the press that the consent to establish the plants has been granted after going through the proposal, which says that the facility would be environmentally safe. As per the Detail Project Report (DPR), this modern, state-of-the-art solid waste management facility would be substantially self-sufficient. The facilities which would be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 103.82 crore is proposed in three sections namely material segregation and recycling centre, treatment of wet fraction via biomethanation and composting section, and landfill area for inert waste. While the Calangute/Saligao facility would be developed at an area of 94,970 sq mtrs, the Cacora plant would occupy and area of 65 000 square metres. Both plants are of 100 tonnes capacity per day. The facility would be functional for 12 hours per day, in two shifts, with 320 days of effective annual operation. Based on the input waste, 80 to 90 per cent recyclables/ refused derived fuel can be expected as output. The proposed facility includes resource recovery through sorting and recycling that is recovery of material such as paper, glass, metal, etc through separation, resource recovery through waste processing that is recovery of materials such as compost and energy from biological process, disposal of inert fraction in engineered sanitary landfill facility which will be environmentally safe.