Chandigarh: MC moves to tackle dry waste with energy plant

DURING A special House meeting held Thursday, it was decided that the UT will have a waste to energy plant. The issue that had been delayed for long now was resolved in consultation with experts.

Experts from Punjab Engineering College and the Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee were present for discussion in the meeting.

After deliberations, Commissioner Municipal Corporation, KK Yadav, announced that the city will have a waste to energy plant for dry waste. He added that alternate arrangements will be made for wet waste. “After technical experts and views of the councillors and officials, it is resolved that for wet waste, for which we already have facility of composting in the Dadumajra plant, we will explore the possibility of upgrading it or increasing its capacity. Any other proposals can also be brought if processing capacity in the same can be increased,” Yadav said in the meeting.

“We will study horticulture waste separately. Things like what it is what we can do. If we want, experts can also visit other places. Chandigarh is probably one of the few cities in the country that produce so much horticulture waste, owing to its highest green cover,” he added.

Of the total 550-600 metric tonne waste generated in Chandigarh daily, dry waste makes up 200 metric tonnes.

Commissioner Yadav added that they will get a detailed project report and draft of request for proposal prepared from three agencies- Punjab Engineering College, IIT Ropar and Thapar Institute of Engineering, Patiala. “We will be asking for quotations from PEC, IIT Ropar and Thapar Institute and see which one provides us the most feasible one so that we can get the DPR and RFP made. The same can be placed before the General House in August, so that we can finalise the company by September or October,” he said.

The same will be analysed by the technical committee as well.

This House reached the conclusion after Dr Shakti Arora from PEC suggested that waste to RDF will not be feasible as waste to energy, since waste to RDF was what the Jaypee group was also doing. However, RDF could not be sold and the company was reportedly going in losses.

Congress councillor Gurbax Rawat asked about the disadvantages of the waste to energy plant.

“There will be energy losses at some steps in the waste to energy plant. The point is that energy conversion is not 100 per cent efficient. At steps where steam is made then into turbine, there would be losses. There is going to be air pollution when waste is burnt. But for that we have solutions like air pollution filters or wet scrubbers,” said Dr Shakti Arora.

Area councillor of Dadumajra, Farmila stated that this should be carefully overlooked that no such gases be emitted, as it becomes serious for people. “If you say gases will be emitted, then kindly see that arrangement is done that it shouldn’t impact the residents who already are sick due to the dumping ground issue for years,” Farmila said.

Commissioner Yadav stated that these issues will be taken care of as per suggestions by experts.

The special house meeting had to be called after the UT Adviser Dharam Pal in his visit to the plant and dumping ground stated that the civic body should immediately decide on the technology and if they can’t, the UT administration will do it.

After taking possession of the sole processing plant from Jaypee group last year in Dadumajra, MC had been carrying out the processing there. However, it was not being done to optimum capacity and the MC wanted to upgrade the machinery.