Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Rameswar Teli has inaugurated the first solid waste management project at Lekai in the Thakurthan area on the outskirts of Dibrugarh on Friday.

"It is a historic day for the people of Dibrugarh as the first solid waste management project in Assam has been inaugurated in the district. Since a long time, the residents had been facing a lot of problems due to the unavailability of proper garbage disposal unit," he said during the inauguration program.

"Earlier, garbage and waste materials were dumped in the Maijan area near river Brahmapurtra in Dibrugarh, causing pollution to the entire area. Hence, due to this, the Dibrugarh and Lahowal MLAs have come up with the project and it was successfully inaugurated today," he added.

The project was built as a cost of Rs 75.03 crore on a 28.3-hectare plot of land under the Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Program (AUIIP). It has a capacity to convert 100 metric tonnes per day (TPD) of waste into compost.

Additionally, diesel, granules and plastics can also be produced from the plant.

Around 80 metric tonnes of solid waste is being produced by the 22 municipal wards of the town every day. Until now, these wastes were dumped in an unscientific manner at the Maijan ghat along the Brahmaputra river flowing beside Dibrugarh town.

The project was started back in 2017 under the Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Program at Lekai, 5-km away from Dibrugarh town.