2 plants in south Delhi to process 400MT dung

NEW DELHI: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has set the ball rolling for installation of two plants in the Najafgarh zone — one at Nangloi and another at Goyla Dairy Colony — for processing 400MT of cattle dung.
The civic body on Monday gave administrative approval to the projects under the Swachh Bharat Mission and set an 18-month deadline for their completion. A senior corporation official put the cost estimate at Rs 58 crore each for the two plants. The tender has been finalised in the build-operate-transfer (BOT) mode under which SDMC will only pay Rs 3 crore as financial assistance and the remaining expense will be borne by the private concessionaire.

“We will save a total of Rs 110 crore in the project. The plants will process 200MT of cattle dung each per day and produce 32,000kg of biogas,” a senior official said.

The Centre’s Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 impose an obligation on SDMC to adopt a suitable process for processing and disposing of cattle dung. “SDMC is expanding its waste processing, management and disposal capabilities. These plants will be installed within 18 months after the work is awarded,” the official said.

As per the tender conditions, the private concessionaire will design, engineer, finance, construct, commission, operate and maintain the plants for 20 years. “The private concessionaire can sell the electricity produced from these plants to recover the money,” the official said.

Officials said the private concessionaire would partner with cattle owners and the latter would be paid for providing dung. “This will also encourage cattle owners not to dump waste anywhere else. We have made them the third party in the tender conditions. The cattle owners will get Rs 656 per tonne,” said the official.

The Nangli Dairy Colony in Najafgarh Zone generates approximately 170 TPD of cattle dung whereas Kakrola Dairy Colony produces about 50 TPD. The Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board has consented to provide approximately 15 TPD of food and vegetable waste. All this will be processed at the plant in Nangli Dairy Colony.

“Also, in many areas, the waste generated from the dairy is sometimes dumped in drains. A separate plant for managing cattle dung will further improve the waste handling practices of SDMC,” the official said.

Under a one-year plan to manage waste, the corporation aims to make Najafgarh a “zero-waste zone” by installing a waste-processing unit of 10MT along with eight decentralised composting plants.