The Hindu 28.07.2010
GHMC's ultimatum to Selco
Special Correspondent
Issues final notice to the company for immediate clearance of dues
Hyderabad: The GHMC seems to have given up on its first ‘garbage to power' plant, Selco. It has issued a supposedly final notice to the company for immediate clearance of the dues pertaining to royalty payment and lease rent amounting to more than Rs. 1.22 crore.
Rejecting the explanations given by Selco management, Municipal Corporation officials of the Health and Sanitation Department have warned that any further delay in payment of the dues will lead to approaching the government to take necessary action.
Contract reached
Selco was reminded that it had to pay Rs. 10 per tonne with interest for supply of municipal solid waste and already it had to pay Rs. 1.09 crore for utilising the garbage of 400 tonnes a day as per the contract between March 2004 and August 2009.
Non-payment will attract 18 per cent interest per annum to be calculated weekly, it said in a communication to the firm few days ago. Selco was also told that a balance of Rs. 13.15 lakh has to be paid for the pending rent dues for the 10-acre land at Gandhamguda village in Ranga Reddy district. Rent was calculated at 5 per cent the value of the latest registration charge
As per the agreement entered between erstwhile MCH and Selco in 1999, the company should utilise 400 tonnes of garbage daily.
By using this garbage, the firm was generating nearly six MW of power daily and selling it to AP Transco. Since 2000, the firm paid Rs. 10 lakh as rent to the corporation of the total Rs 23 lakh dues. Sources said Selco had stopped generating power for the past eight months besides defaulting on rent payment for the last four years.
“Since January 2008 Selco started reducing utilisation of garbage before totally closing the plant eight months ago,” an official of the health wing of the GHMC said.
Burden on GHMC
Officials say if 400 tonnes of garbage is not utilised productively, it will be a burden on the corporation to transport the waste from various stations to the dumping yard at Jawaharnagar and dispose it in a scientific manner.
