The Kochi Corporation has set aside about ₹25 crore from the ₹40 crore special fund earmarked under the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) as viability gap fund for the proposed waste-to-energy project at Brahmapuram.
Mayor Soumini Jain said about ₹10 crore to ₹14 crore of this ₹40 crore assistance would be used to prepare the detailed project report on the leachate treatment plant at Brahmapuram. The remaining fund would be used to pay the difference in the cost of power production and the rate fixed for power purchase from the plant as fixed by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission, she said.
This is in addition to the assurance given by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) to provide the civic body a viability gap fund of ₹25 crore for the proposed waste-to-energy project. The Corporation and the State government will have to share the viability gap funding as per the conditions prescribed in the tripartite agreement. For the State government, the Suchitwa Mission will meet the expense and the viability gap funding offered by the BPCL will go to the Mission’s kitty.
The government in an order issued on January 4, 2016, had stated that it would provide the additional amount as subsidy through the Suchitwa Mission, if the rate of the power tariff of the energy produced from the waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram was higher than the average rate fixed by the Electricity Regulatory Commission.