MC to produce power from waste

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 6

With the deadlock between the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and the Jaypee Group over the garbage processing plant at Dadu Majra yet to be solved, the MC has now decided to generate power from solid waste at the plant. 

At present, the Jaypee Group produces refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from solid waste, which it supplies to various power plants and cement plants.

City Mayor Arun Sood said they had already formed a nine-member committee of councillors and MC officials to start the process. The MC would invite expression of interest from various companies to generate power from solid waste, he said. 

He said the energy would be sold to power companies. The byproduct of the combustion process would be non-hazardous ash residue, which would be about 10 per cent of the original volume of the trash and could be used for road construction and at brick-kilns. After finalising the process, the MC would sign an agreement with the selected company, which would process the garbage in the city and sell power to power companies. According to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), power companies would buy the green energy produced from solid waste under the project at the rate of Rs 7.90 per unit, he said.

Jaypee had given fresh ultimatum

The Jaypee Group, which is running the plant, had given a fresh ultimatum to the MC that it would shut the plant on June 15. However, MC Joint Commissioner Rajiv Gupta said at a meeting on June 3, the company had agreed to run the plant for the time being. In November last year, the MC House had rejected the agenda to provide tipping charges to the Jaypee Group for processing the garbage. A letter from the plant management was placed before the MC House meeting on February 29 in which it was stated that the plant management was suffering a loss of Rs 50 lakh every month and unless the MC paid the tipping fee, it would shut the plant on March 31.

Dumping ground to be used for other purposes 

Mayor Arun Sood said with new technology, there would be no need to dump garbage at the dumping ground in Dadu Majra. The MC would use the ground for other purposes, he said.