Bengaluru stampede aftermath: 1,000 kg of shoes left behind after RCB celebration now powering city

The discarded shoes, collected by special teams, are now being used to generate electricity, marking a first for the city’s waste management system. (Source: Image/X)

In an unusual cleanup operation, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has sent over a tonne of footwear - left behind after the stampede during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) victory celebrations- to a waste-to-energy plant in Bidadi. The discarded shoes, collected by special teams, are now being used to generate electricity, marking a first for the city’s waste management system, The New Indian Express reported.

Three auto-tippers, each carrying 300-350 kg of footwear, were dispatched to the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) plant over the past two days. The Bidadi facility, which typically processes 600 tonnes of dry waste daily to produce 11.5 MW of electricity, faced an unexpected challenge with the influx of shoes.

“This is the first time we’ve encountered such a large quantity of footwear waste,” said Abhilash M M, BBMP’s Assistant Executive Engineer for Solid Waste Management (Shivajinagar). “Usually, footwear waste comes from religious places or public functions, but never on this scale. Without the waste-to-energy plant, this waste would have ended up in landfills. Now, it’s being used to produce electricity,” The New Indian Express quoted the official as saying.

A KPCL official admitted the plant had never processed shoes before. “After internal discussions, we found a way to use most of it to generate electricity,” the official said, though leather and imported shoes proved difficult to handle.

BBMP’s swift cleanup saw marshals monitoring teams tasked with collecting shoes separately from banners and torn clothing. “All waste around the stadium was cleared and a report is being compiled,” said BBMP’s Special Commissioner Harish Kumar K, quoted The New Indian Express.