Waste management plant gets green signal

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 23

Unmindful of the repeated protests by a section of residents of various localities, the government has officially declared that the plant would come up at Bhagtanwala only.

Technical adviser to Chief Minister, General VK Bhatt, Principal Secretary Manmohan Singh and the head of the specially constituted Municipal Solid Waste Management Committee have unanimously decided to go ahead with the process of opening the financial bid of the lone firm, that was left in the fray for carrying out the construction.

This development came up during a special meeting held at Chandigarh today, which was attended by Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora and MC Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal from the city.

In all, six firms had applied for setting up the plant at Bhagtanwala, but only one Mumbai-based firm Ess Ell Infra could reach the almost last stage of the financial bid. Yet, the process had to be stalled on May 12, because the firm had negligible experience in the execution of the solid waste management plant.

Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora said the firm’s representatives apprised the committee through a power point presentation that two identical plants were running in Chennai and Jabalpur. He said, “The financial background of the firm is quite sound, but our local consultants have raised objections that the firm has little experience of installing solid waste management plants. So, we had referred the matter to the government for taking a final call. We have received a green signal to open the financial bid of the firm today. It will now be at our discretion when to open it.”

The plant, conceptualised in 2006, had failed to kick off in Amritsar. Earlier, in 2006, the Punjab Pollution Control Committee, an NGO in Amritsar, had challenged the move to establish the plant at Bhagtanwala in the High Court and another petition was filed by M/s AKC Developers Ltd challenging the cancellation of its contract for the project. Both the petitions were dismissed on July 23, 2013.

The tenders were called up at least three times, but the process had to be scrapped midway. Either the firms quoted exorbitant rates or they were never able to meet the parameters set by the MC before awarding the contract.

Meanwhile, the aggrieved residents of Bhagtanwala, who were up in arms against the government’s move to set up a plant in their locality, staged a protest at the site and raised slogans against the government for taking the decision.