Kochi households face higher biomedical waste collection fee as Corporation set to trim subsidy
Kochi Corporation is restructuring its biomedical waste collection fees, significantly reducing subsidies and increasing costs for households starting in August 2026. The city is transitioning to a new service provider to manage waste disposal more efficiently.
Why it matters
The policy change reflects the financial challenges local governments face in managing essential public health services and waste infrastructure.
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.
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