Cuttack: The civic body's organic waste conversion project at the Chhatra Bazaar vegetable and fruit wholesale market missed its inauguration date on Friday as the installation of the machine got delayed.

The civic body had planned to inaugurate the project on the occasion of the Local Self-Government Day. The inauguration was scheduled to take place at 1.10pm in the schedule of programs that was released on Thursday.

But the civic administration conceded that it had no machine at hand to carry forward the inauguration of the project that involved a compost plant for proper disposal of biodegradable waste and was taken up in collaboration with the market committee.

Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra told The Telegraph on Friday that Tata Trust was to provide the machinery and building for the compost plant.

"Tata Trust has already constructed the building and provided the machinery. But the inauguration of the compost plant had to be shelved as the machinery was still on the way," Mohapatra said.

As part of the project, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation had already undertaken an awareness drive among vendors at Chhatra Bazaar on source segregation of the waste that will help them make the compost easily.

Chhatra Bazaar Byabasai Committee secretary Debendra Sahu said: "We expect to start making compost soon after the machinery is installed in the building constructed for the purpose."

With the functioning of the compost plant, it will be made mandatory for the vendors to keep two coloured bins.

The green for dumping biodegradable and blue for non-biodegradable wastes. The civic body will collect the waste for proper disposal, the municipal commissioner said.

However, to mark the day, the municipal corporation on Friday made a slew of inaugurations - mostly of public toilets and community toilets, laid the foundation stone for a clock tower at Belle View Chakh and named the stretch of Ring Road from Belle View Chakh to Naraj as Bharatratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Marg.

Opposition parties - Congress and BJP - however, staged protests against the civic administration for inordinate delay in implementation of various development works and the persisting chaos in garbage collection and disposal.

City Congress president Mohd Moquim staged protests along with party workers wearing black badges at the Belle View Chakh, while Cuttack BJP president Laxmidhar Pradhan observed a "black day" along with party leaders in front of the civic headquarters.