Bio-gas plant planned for Mumbai to treat 1,000 ton wet waste daily

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with the Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL), will set up a bio-gas plant in Mumbai, which will process about 1,000 tons of wet waste daily.
The plant will process the municipal wet waste and produce biogas. The biogas is later purified and compressed and can also be used as an auto fuel.

According to BMC officials, the proposal for setting up the plant was mooted by the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas. MGL is promoted by GAIL, a PSU under the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. The BMC will provide the land required for setting up this plant and also ensure supply of the wet waste to the plant. The city generates about 6,400 tons of dry and wet waste every day, of which about 3,500 tons is wet waste.
"This initiative will help us in building a circular economy, and it has been implemented in other cities too. The project will be implemented without any cost to the BMC. Capital expenditure on the plant will be borne by Mahanagar Gas, while the civic body will provide land for the project. A formal MOU will be signed between MGL and the BMC in the next few days. The proposed plant will recycle about one third of the wet waste generated in the city. But what we need to do is to ensure that we deliver properly segregated wet waste to wherever the biogas plant is set up," said a BMC official.
"Once the MOU is signed, the plant is likely to be set up and made operational within a year's time," the official added.
Mahanagar Gas officials declined to comment stating that the details are yet to finalised between the parties. The challenge before BMC is to ensure 100% segregation of wet and dry waste and also ensure that the wet and dry waste does not get mixed, while transportation.
"For collection of wet waste, five vehicles have been allocated per ward. Initially, we are looking at the low-hanging fruits for collection of wet waste, which has to be delivered to the plant. Initially, properly segregated wet waste collected from hotels, restaurants and bulk waste generators such as large housing societies, etc can be delivered to the plant," said a BMC official.
The BMC had earlier announced a rebate in property tax for segregation of wet and dry waste and processing wet waste. "We also want to encourage societies, which segregate and manage waste well. Those societies which manage their waste will be given a logo 'Go Green'. The logo will be like an honour and will be displayed outside their society," said a civic official.