Kochi: A minor fire broke out at the dumping site of Brahmapuram Municipal Solid Waste Treatment Plant in Kochi on Friday even as biomining to remove legacy waste from the yard was progressing.

A heap of legacy waste near the site of a compressed biogas plant being built on the yard caught fire by 2.30 pm. Two units of Fire and Rescue Services personnel from Thrikkakara station and one from Pattimattom rushed to the site and extinguished the fire in an operation that lasted for 30 minutes. The cause of the fire is not known.

A major fire broke out in the Brahmapuram waste dumping yard in March 2023, exposing the problems with the city’s waste management measures. The fire was doused in an operation that lasted for more than 10 days. The state government has been paying special attention to solving the waste management woes in the city and renovating the Brahmapuram facility with a set of measures.

The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is setting up the CBG plant as part of the measures.

Earlier this month, Minister for Local Self Governments and Excise M B Rajesh said that the works on the compressed biogas (CBG) plant will be completed by the end of March.

He said 75% of biomining, the process of sorting and removing legacy waste accumulated in an area over the years, has been completed in the dumping yard. “Of the 8,43,000 tonnes of garbage which had heaped in the yard, 6,08,325 tonne has been removed. Eighteen acres of land have been recovered through this process. It comes to around 46% of the total 39 acres,” the minister had said on February 3. The CBG plant is coming up in the newly cleared space.