The Indian Express   06.08.2012

Civic body plans waste-to-energy plant at one of 3 dumping grounds

The failure of the city’s two important dumping grounds to handle garbage efficiently has forced the civic administration to approach the steel conglomerate Jindal Group to set up a waste-to-energy plant.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has approached Jindal Ecopolis — a subsidiary of steel major Jindal SAW Ltd — to set up a waste incineration plant at one of its three dumping grounds. The civic administration is planning to approach the Asian Development Bank to fund the project.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Mohan Adtani said, “We have asked for a techno-economical feasibility report from a technical committee of the company officials and IIT professors. After the findings of the report, we will decide on an alternative plan to set up a waste-to-energy incineration plant in the city. The company had undertaken a similar project in Delhi, which has been running successfully for the past six months.”

“We have been following the success of the waste-to-energy plant set up by the Jindals in Delhi and feel it could be a good option for Mumbai also. Although the moisture content in the garbage here is more, the composition of waste in both cities is similar. So, the idea can be replicated easily,” he said.

A waste-to-energy incineration plant uses the heat from the combustion of waste to generate steam in boilers. The steam in turn drives turbines linked to generators to produce electricity.

Although such a plant, set up by the firm for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), was under the scrutiny of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for various environment violations, civic officials claimed that an urgent need to plan alternative ways of waste management in the city, and the success of the plant in Delhi, led them to approach the company.

Meanwhile, the civic administration that has been reeling under a serious waste dumping problem — owing to a delay in setting up of a compost plant at the Deonar dumping ground and the start of full-fledged operations at Kanjurmarg — is also mulling stringent action against dumping ground contractors for delay in the projects.

“We might cancel contracts of the contractors as there is no progress but first we need to find alternative ways to process the garbage,” said Adtani.The crucial Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission garbage disposal and compost plant is expected to be delayed by over three years with its new deadline being November 2013, said officials.

A senior official said, “The compost plant at Deonar has been delayed by over a year, which has put additional burden on the dumping ground. We have imposed heavy penalties on operators of the dumping ground.”