The Indian Express               28.06.2013

Waste-to-energy plants: BMC seeks EoI from firms

The initiative is part of the corporation's attempt to ease pressure off the city's two landfills at Deonar and Mulund, which have exceeded capacity as the appointed contractors refuse to process the collecting waste. The city generates nearly 6,500 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste and 2,000-2,500 metric tonnes of construction waste (debris and silt) daily.

"As our landfill contractors have not been processing the waste owing to various reasons, this project should considerably ease the problem of mounting garbage and silt. We will issue an EOI in a week or so. The Jindal Group has shown interest and we are expecting a few more companies to respond to our bid - they should have prior experience in handling waste-to-energy projects. We are planning these plants at the city's transfer stations," said additional municipal commissioner Mohan Adtani, in-charge of civic solid waste management department.

As per the revised plan for the project, the corporation will share the capital expenditure for setting up the plan with the chosen company.

"In our previous experience of contracting the entire capital expenditure and work for managing the city's dumping grounds, our revenue expenditure — for collecting garbage and tipping fee at the landfills is considerably high. Thus we have decided that perhaps it is a better idea to share the capital costs of setting up waste-to-energy plants. Then our revenue expenditure should reduce in the long run," said Adtani.

Jindal Ecopolis is among the companies the BMC expects a response from.

The Times of India              27.06.2013

Corp moots 62 biogas plants to tackle garbage menace

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: What was once deemed as the last and limited option for waste processing in city has now become the top priority for the city corporation. In one of the biggest proposals mooted by the corporation for decentralized waste management so far, the health standing committee has drawn out a Rs 7-crore project for installing high-capacity biogas plants on a community model basis at 62 spots.

The proposal has already been submitted to the urban affairs directorate. "This is the biggest proposal we have received from any corporation till now. I have already directed the urban affairs director to take positive steps on it depending upon the technical criteria for fund disbursement and allocation for the corporation," said minister for urban affairs Manjalamkuzhy Ali.

The proposal stresses setting up of biogas plants with capacity ranging from 75kg to 2,000kg. The officials have mostly zeroed in on markets, schools, premises of government offices and charitable institutions for the purpose. A year ago when the corporation began initiating the concept of decentralized waste management, the maximum budget allocated was limited to Rs 3,000 and the capacity of biogas plants never exceeded 150kg.

"We are spurred by the success of community biogas plant already operational at Sreekanteswaram. The idea to press for a project on this massive budget was unanimous since this is the only viable option for the corporation at present," said S Pushpalatha, chairperson, health standing committee. The civic body has also received 105 applications from 11 wards for biogas plantsfollowing the people's convention

. All these applications have been diverted into the new project. The positive nod from the minister has encouraged the officials. "We had designed the proposal in such a way that at least three-four households can make use of a high-capacity biogas plant installed in an office compound or a school premise," a project official said.

As per the plan, high-capacity biogas plants, ie, with two-tonne processing capacity and a digester capacity of 275 cu m are being planned at markets areas in Sreevaraham, Beemapally and Valiyathura. Government office premises like Pareeksha Bhavan, Vikas Bhavan, civil station and residential areas like police quarters, railway quarters have also been identified for biogas plants.

The project will be implemented jointly with Kerala state urban development project (KSUDP).

"We are also preparing a core team with technical experts who would monitor the functioning of plants and offer guidance. Companies will be chosen by calling an expression of interest and such steps will be directly monitored by KSUDP," said Pushpalatha.