Decks cleared for new technology to process Chandigarh's waste

Sandeep Rana

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Chandigarh, March 3

Decks have finally been cleared for setting up new technology to process city’s waste. The location for the garbage processing plant has not been finalised yet.

UT Adviser Dharam Pal today gave nod to invite the expression of interest (EOI).

The IIT, Ropar, had earlier submitted a detailed project report (DPR) and the request for proposal (RFP) in this regard. The Municipal Corporation will invite the EOI on Monday from agencies to set up a wet and dry waste processing plant, confirmed MC Commissioner Anindita Mitra. According to her, the civic body is open to any technology for the plant. The agencies may produce biomethane, CNG, do composting or gasification. Under the revenue-sharing model, the byproduct will be of the agency and the civic body will give 20 acres of land for 20 years.

In the EOI, the agencies will have 21 days to submit their bids. The RFP will take around two months. After that, the firm(s), in a joint venture or consortium, will take around 12 to 18 months to install an integrated dry and wet waste processing technology. For the time being, the corporation has already started the process to upgrade and repair the existing dry waste plant at Rs6 crore.

MC took over plant from Jaypee in June ‘20

The MC had taken the possession of the garbage processing plant in Sector 25 from Jaypee Group in June 2020 claiming that less processing of waste was being carried out at the unit for the past many years.

As per an IIT-Roorkee inspection report, the existing plant can at best handle 60 to 65 tonne per day (TPD) waste. The city produces about 450 tonnes of waste per day.