Ludhiana MC inks MoU with Chennai firm to turn 400 MT of daily waste into charcoal
Ludhiana, August 29
In a major initiative taken to improve solid waste management, the Municipal Corporation (MC), Ludhiana, has signed an MoU with a Chennai-based firm, Aarathi Renewables PDY Private Limited, for processing daily waste generated in the city.
Under this pilot project launched for three years, the firm will turn 400 metric tonnes (per day) of fresh daily waste into green charcoal. Ajith P Rao from Aarathi Renewables PDY Private Limited and MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi signed the MoU.
The MC chief said the MC would not pay a single penny to the contractor under the pilot project. Only two acres of land and a power connection would be provided to the contractor.
The contractor has commenced the process to transport and install the machinery/plant at the site and the process to turn the waste into green charcoal will commence in around three months.
At the plant, carbon-based fresh waste, be it dry or wet, will be turned into green charcoal and the remaining waste would be sold off by the contractor. No waste (out of 400 metric tonnes) would be dumped at the landfill site.
Officials stated that the waste would be turned into green charcoal through thermochemical reaction and the process would be completed complying with the norms of the Punjab Pollution Control Board.
Rishi said a number of initiatives had been taken to improve solid waste management. This pilot project was among those initiatives wherein 400 metric tonnes of fresh daily waste would be turned into green charcoal.
A total of 1,100 metric tonnes of waste is generated in the city on a daily basis. For the remaining 700 metric tonnes of daily waste, the civic body has also floated a Rs 55-crore tender to hire a contractor for processing the same.
The civic body chief said for bio-mining of remaining 19.62 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste dumped at the main dumpsite, the civic body had also floated Rs 100 crore tender for hiring a contractor. Rs 11 crore tender had also been floated for hiring a contractor for disposing off legacy waste dumped at the Jainpur site.
Meanwhile, the MC Commissioner appealed to residents to support the civic body in improving solid waste management by handing over segregated dry and wet waste to garbage collectors. He urged them to stop dumping waste at open spaces, vacant plots, etc.
