Selling treated sewage to help VMC jack up revenue

Vadodara: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) is mulling to supply treated sewage to industries around the city and generate revenue from it. The civic body is already in the process of making an agreement with the Gujarat Refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Ltd for the supply.
The interest shown by the civic body in such projects is owing to the fact that the central government is insisting on sewage reuse. It has suggested that this can be supplied to industries in and around urban areas.

The VMC along with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) had been working to find solutions to various urban issue. As part of this initiative, the CII was looking to identify industries that could use treated sewage from VMC’s sewage treatment plants (STP). The organisation got a positive response in this regard from IOC.

A proposal put before the standing committee of the civic body states that IOC has proposed to lift treated sewage from the Chhani STP of the civic body. It has proposed to use 21 million litres of water per day as process water in the refinery. The VMC will have to sign a memorandum of understanding and an agreement in this regard with the IOC.

IOC is not the only organisation looking to use STP water from VMC. The civic body has received a similar proposal from the Gujarat State Electricity Corporation (GSEC) that has planned a power plant in the Shinor taluka. GSEC has sought treated sewage to the tune of 110 million litres per day from the VMC.

The note for the standing committee states that under the National Tariff Policy of 2016, existing as well as proposed power plants have been asked to procure treated sewage water from urban bodies if they are located within a radius of 50km.

Preliminary meetings for supply of STP water to the Dahej Industrial Association Reliance Industries Ltd at Vadodara have also been held, the note states.