MC pulls up firm for missing deadline

Kuldeep Chauhan 

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Tribune News Service 

Shimla, December 20

Even as a private company has started procuring about 20 tonnes of the city’s solid waste daily, the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has pulled up the company for its failure for not meeting the December deadline for the operation of the much-awaited Rs 42 crore waste-to-energy project at Bhariyal landfill site. The company has set March 2017 the new deadline for taking the  70 tonnes of waste daily to generate 2.5 mw of electricity. 

The inspection of the plant by a team of officials, headed by Municipal Commissioner Pankaj Rai,  revealed that Elephant Energy Ltd  had set up a unit and started procuring  about  20 tonnes of waste daily for the plant.

 “We have asked the company to speed up the work as the NGT is monitoring the project,” said Sanjay Chauhan, Mayor. 

“We have to provide only 70 tonnes of garbage for the plant daily. The company will generate about 2.5 mw of electricity that will be sold to the HP electricity board for 20 years as per direction of the regulator,” he added. 

The SMC is disposing of about 20 tonnes of waste at the Bhadyal waste- to-energy plant daily. About 50 tonnes of waste that Shimla produces daily is being transported to Chandigarh as directed by the NGT. 

The SMC has already spent Rs 1 crore on transportation of garbage to the Chandigarh waste treatment plant in one year, said SMC officials. In October last year, the NGT directed the SMC to transport the waste to Chandigarh till the plant started functioning in Shimla, they added. 

The company was facing problem in running its drier unit as it was getting some wet waste, which needed to be dried up. 

 “The company is setting up its second unit that will take another 40 tonnes of waste daily by January. The company is expected to complete its operation  by March 2017,”  Rai added.