Civic body to sell methane at Bhattian STP to raise income

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 12

As a huge amount of methane (marsh gas) is produced at the sewage treatment plant (STP), Bhattian, the MC will sell it to a firm and generate income. The MC House has recently approved a proposal regarding the installation of a biogas plant at the Bhattian STP. The final decision has to be taken by the government.

As per the proposal, a firm will set up a biogas plant at the STP. The gas will be filtered and compressed before filling in bottles or cylinders and the firm will then sell it, as per information. The firm will pay fixed charges to the MC for the gas.

It is learned that a large amount of methane gas gets wasted daily. To prevent the wastage of the gas at STPs, the civic body in 2015, when GK Singh Dhaliwal was the MC Commissioner, had planned to supply filtered gas to nearby rural areas through a pipeline for cooking purposes at economical rates. The gas can also be used to produce electricity. However, the planned project could not see the light of day.

In 2015, it was noticed that 6,000 cubic metre of gas is produced in 24 hours at the Bhattian STP and around 70 per cent of it was methane. Besides, other gases included oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and hydrogen sulphide.

Now, a firm has come forward and requested the MC to allow it to set up a compressed biogas plant at the Bhattian STP. The firm will sell the gas after filtering and compressing it in cylinders. The firm has proposed to pay 50 paise per cubic meter raw gas during the first year, Rs 1 per cubic meter raw gas in the second year and Rs 1.50 per cubic meter raw gas during the third year to the civic body.

According to officials, the MC will generate an income of Rs 81,000 per month first year, Rs 1.62 lakh per month second year and Rs 2.43 lakh per month during the third year.

They said the firm would make investment of around Rs 5.50 crore to Rs 6 crore to set up the plant.

Executive Engineer Pardeep Saluja said a large amount of methane gas was produced at the STP, Bhattian, and the MC would generate revenue by selling the gas to the firm.

Notably, the MC would send a proposal in this regard, which has been approved by MC House recently, to the government for final approval.