A mountain of garbage for several decades, Laloor in Kerala’s Thrissur district has been transformed into a vibrant multi-purpose sports complex. Named after Thrissur’s living football legend I M Vijayan, the 14-acre complex, inaugurated on November 3, stands as a testament to the vision of the state government and the local civic body to make dreams come true in even the worst of circumstances.
K G Kishore Kumar, 56, grew up in Laloor, witnessing how garbage from the urban areas of Thrissur kept piling up day by day in his backyard over the last three decades. For Kishore Kumar and others, who bore the brunt of the urban waste, this change is a dream come true. “We thought that at least three or four generations of Laloor would be destined to live with the waste. Many died fighting diseases caused by the toxic waste,” he said.
A poll promise
The makeover stemmed from an election promise by CPI leader V S Sunil Kumar, who had contested as the candidate for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) from Thrissur in the 2016 Assembly election. “We had not promised a sports complex before the voters, but instead stated that a new project would come up at the Laloor garbage ground, where fresh dumping of waste had been stopped since 2012, but legacy waste remained,” he said.
Sunil Kumar, who became the agriculture minister when the LDF rose to power in 2016, said the budget for 2016-17 had announced sports complexes in various centres with help from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the state agency for funding infrastructure development through off-budget borrowings.
“We wanted to construct one sports complex in Thrissur, and the dumping ground in Laloor was suggested for the proposed project. The Thrissur Municipal Corporation, which owned the trenching ground, handed over the 14 acres for the sports complex. Now, its first phase is complete, and we decided to name it after I M Vijayan, the pride of Thrissur,” he said.
The Rs 59-crore first phase of the project has an indoor stadium with a seating capacity of 5,000. It has three badminton courts, and one volleyball and basketball court each. Outside the indoor stadium, there is a football court with a synthetic turf, a tennis court, swimming pool, and an administrative block. Besides, modern dressing rooms for players, office chambers, a VIP lounge and other basic amenities have also come up. The complex will be managed by the state sports and youth affairs department.
How the issue of garbage was addressed
Since 1998, Laloor, then part of Ayyanthol panchayat, had turned into a battle zone against the dumping of waste as people faced much hardship due to the garbage, both organic and inorganic, which had accumulated over the years. The agitation had attracted statewide attention on many occasions.
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In 2012, after a fire engulfed the garbage mountain, leading to the discharge of toxic substances into the air, the Thrissur corporation was forced to stop fresh dumping of waste. While legacy waste remained unattended at Laloor, the municipal corporation launched the Laloor model project for solid waste management, which was mainly aimed at processing at the source (households). However, the project did not take off, leaving the waste in the corporation area unattended.
Congress councillor Laly James, who had represented Laloor in the corporation from 2010 to 2020, says, “In 2012, we had stopped sending fresh loads to Laloor, which helped to end the agitation. Then, the corporation set up a bio-waste plant in the city as part of decentralised management in 2013. The organic waste was converted into manure,” she said.
The game-changer in waste management came in 2017 when the corporation rolled out the Haritha Karma Sena or green action force to collect non-biodegradable waste from households. The sena is a group of women employed by the local body to collect inorganic waste from houses, segregate it at designated collection centres, and later hand it over to the state-run Clean Kerala Company, which manages such waste from all local bodies across the state.
Removing legacy waste
Although fresh dumping of waste was stopped at Laloor in 2012, the local authorities faced the task of removing the legacy waste. Spending Rs 5 crore, the corporation removed the legacy waste of 60,000 cubic metres through bio-mining, setting the ground for the construction of the sports complex. The removed stuff was handed over to various agencies after segregation.
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P K Shajan, the municipal councillor currently representing Laloor division, said the corporation has already distributed bio-bins in 20,000 households out of 80,000. We have already initiated steps to cover the rest of the houses for the treatment of organic waste at home. Besides, Thrissur is the only local body in Kerala where a crematorium was opened for animals as part of waste management,” he said.
Shajan said the quality of life has improved in Laloor after the waste was removed and the land was converted into a modern sports complex. “Earlier, local youths found it very difficult to find life partners as most people did not want to live in the region. Family functions held here had very thin attendance due to the nauseating stench from the garbage hill,” he said.
However, the sports complex is set to change Laloor’s fortunes. Real estate inquiries have also gone up as the complex will host national events in the future. “My son wanted to leave Laloor once he completed his BDS course. But now he has changed his mind. The transformation of the garbage hill to a sports complex is unbelievable. Now, we can proudly say that we are residents of Laloor and point to the sports complex as a landmark,” said Kishore Kumar.