Six proposals have been made over the last decade involving different companies without one deal taking off.
Bangalore, April 13, 2018: The recently-inked Waste to Energy deal between the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and a French firm doesn’t seem to hit the floors anytime soon. The deal was a step towards fighting the garbage woes of the city,
In March this year, BBMP had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a French firm, ‘3 WAY STE’, during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India, to install a Waste to Energy plant in Chikkanagamangala, to process 500 tons of waste and generate energy from it.
Dr. Ramesh Jalan, Global Advisor to the firm and privy to the development, informed The Softcopy that they will be getting mixed waste in the plant and will use the technology to segregate the waste into biodegradable, recyclable and combustible components; while biodegradable waste will be composted in the plant itself, combustible faction will burned to generate energy.
“A total amount of Rs 265 crore will be invested in the plant to process 500 tons of waste and generate which will result in the generation of 7-8 MW of energy,” he added.
However, the tariff at which Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) will buy the energy from the plant for further distribution has not been finalised yet, nor has the site to install the plant been approved. Some of these factors were the reason for the failure of similar deals earlier.
The concept of WtE plant was first introduced in 2009 by the BBMP wherein the municipality was making proposals to various waste to Energy Companies including Essel Group and Nexus Novus from Netherland but the deal was not taking off due to obstacles over tariff finalisation. Some of these concerns included companies refusing to sell power at Rs 7.90 per unit as fixed by KERC, problems in land acquisition for the plant and protests by the locals. Environmental concerns were also raised by Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) over pollution the in residential areas due to the setting up of a WtE plant.
Environmentalist Kshitij Urs said, “There seems to be total disconnect between the BBMP and the scientific community.”
“It’s essential to have an open discussion between municipal authorities and people who are technically competent if we are to deal with the problem,” he added.
(Image Source- Wikimedia Commons)
