Kochi households face higher biomedical waste collection fee as Corporation set to trim subsidy

Residents of Kochi city dependent on doorstep collection of biomedical waste may have to brace for a financial shock, as from next month (August, 2026), the Kochi Corporation will move away from a fully subsidised service to a system that gradually restricts subsidy to only eligible sections.

Under the new regime, the Corporation’s subsidy burden will fall from ₹28 per kg to just ₹8, while the user fee will rise from ₹12 per kg to ₹20 for non-subsidised households. The two existing agencies engaged in collection – Aakri and Suchigo – will no longer be part of the Corporation’s service network and be replaced by Success Projects, a subsidiary of Raidco Kerala Limited, which operates two biomedical waste incinerators at Brahmapuram.

This follows revised rates approved by the council earlier this month. As per the new fee structure, subsidy will be capped at ₹8 per kg (plus GST), while others will have to pay the full ₹20 per kg. Commercial establishments will be charged ₹45 per kg. Under the present system, waste is being collected at ₹40 per kg, which includes a subsidy component of ₹28.

“We will continue to extend subsidy to all households for one more month, by which time the health committee is expected to frame guidelines fixing eligibility. Thereafter, households requiring subsidy will have to apply to the Corporation with relevant documents, including a doctor’s certificate, and approval will be subject to our vetting process. There will be some hardships though we have no other alternative but to address them and go forward,” said Mayor V.K. Minimol.

The existing agencies had expressed willingness to collect waste at ₹28 per kg, which would have doubled the Corporation’s commitment to ₹16. However, the Corporation could not accept that rate since it exceeded the lower rates approved by the council and would have attracted audit objections. The civic body is also in the process of terminating its agreement with Kerala Enviro Infrastructure Limited (KEIL), the Ambalamugal-based agency where part of the city’s biomedical waste is currently treated.

“We now pay ₹38 (plus GST) per kg for treatment at KEIL, and they have demanded a further hike after September. Instead, we will treat the waste at our two incinerators with a combined capacity of three tonnes a day. Raidco is confident of raising the capacity to five tonnes once dryers are made available,” Ms. Minimol added.

At present, the Corporation spends around ₹8.5 crore annually on biomedical waste treatment. Officials suspect that the reported volume of biomedical waste is grossly inflated and includes waste collected from neighbouring local bodies as well. The system has been in place since the Brahmapuram inferno of 2023. Ms. Minimol noted that the current arrangement was “bleeding” the Corporation’s finances. To plug the drain, the civic body also proposes to introduce a direct benefit transfer system for subsidy payments towards biomedical waste collection.

LDF opposes move

V.A. Sreejith, LDF parliamentary party leader, charged that the Corporation’s decision would further burden citizens. “We have submitted a letter opposing the move to introduce non-subsidised sanitary waste collection and registered our protest in the council. However, the UDF-led council was unwilling to heed,” he said.