Bhubaneswar, May 21: Uncertainty looms over the fate of a proposed slaughterhouse in the city.

In 2011, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had planned to build five small slaughterhouses in the city. But last year, it decided to have just one big slaughterhouse and a detailed project report was prepared. However, work on the project is yet to begin.

BMC officials said the Kerala-based consultant, Centre for Environment and Development, was asked to conduct some basic research on the acceptance-level of the project, transportation of the meat to the selling points and hygiene factors. The go-ahead would be given once all this was done to the corporation’s satisfaction.

However, the consultant firm clarified that at first, the BMC was planning to have five slaughterhouses, then it decided on one big one. At present, it has apparently changed its mind and wants two.

The consultant firm’s project engineer in-charge Reghu Kumar said: “In 2011, we had even prepared a detailed project report for five small slaughterhouses. Last year, we prepared another report for the mega slaughterhouse planned at Rudrapur. But the civic authorities are now saying that they are interested in two slaughterhouses, each on 0.5 acre plots. We have asked them to specify the locations.” Kumar said the mega slaughterhouse was planned for 500 animals a day and with a capacity of 200 birds per hour. But the most interesting part of its technology was that the unit would not produce any waste, but a quality by product which could be used as fish and animal feed.

In June last year, the general administration department allotted two acres in Rudrapur on the city outskirts for the big slaughterhouse. It was to be linked to five meat markets in the city with each of them having 30 to 40 meat-selling vends. The meat markets were to be carved out of the five proposed small slaughterhouses of 2011 — at Pandra, Gadakana, Dumduma, Ghatikia and Veer Surendra Sai Nagar.

The civic administration has been worried about the slaughtering of animals and sale of meat in the open since the Orissa High Court had asked the BMC to stop open slaughter of animals.

A senior BMC official said that of the five plots allotted to the civic body by the general administration department for the development of small slaughterhouses in 2011, only two — the ones at Ghatikia and Gadakana — were under the control of the BMC. The other three were involved in disputes.

Muncipal commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra declined to speak on the proposal for the slaughterhouses.

Deputy municipal commissioner Krushna Prasad Pati said: “Clarifications were sought at the government level and the consulting agency has to provide suitable answers. Once the clarifications are received and the government is convinced, we can go ahead.”

Members of the All-India Jamiatul Quresh, the traditional butchers in the city, said the proposal by the civic body to have a mega slaughterhouse and meat market complexes with 30-40 shops would not serve any purpose.

“We had demanded at least 10 slaughterhouses at various places in the city so that mutton and chicken traders would not need to go to the outskirts to get their animals slaughtered. But if the civic body opts for only one slaughterhouse at Rudrapur, we will suffer. There are 300 meat sellers in the city,’’ said the local secretary of the organisation, Seikh Sarjan Qureshi.