The Hindu              06.12.2013

KITCO to begin paper work for new waste treatment plant

The groundwork for the proposed solid waste treatment
plant at Brahmapuram has just started with KITCO, the public sector
consultant, being selected for initiating the job.

The
Local Self Government Department and KITCO will sign an agreement
shortly authorising the latter to prepare the bid documents. It will
also be responsible for selecting the agency which should implement the
project. The bid documents would be ready within one month of the
consultant being assigned the task, officials said.

Earlier,
the State government had announced that it would set up a modern waste
treatment plant at Brahmapuram in place of the existing one. The
existing plant, which the Kochi Corporation had established with the
funds allotted from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission,
had developed technical snags and the floor of the plant had developed
cracks. Some portions of the floor even sank and the plant had to be
shut down for some time. Later, the local body roped in a private agency
for repairing and running the plant.

The new plant,
with an installed capacity to process at least 300 tonnes of refuse a
day, will cater to the needs of the Kochi Corporation and the adjoining
municipalities. The paper works related to the bidding process for the
new plant would be completed by March and it would take another
one-and-a-half years for building the new plant. KITCO will also be
responsible for overseeing the execution of the work and also the
operations, officials said.

At the same time, V.P.
Sajeendran, MLA, the legislator representing the Brahmapuram area, said
the government had promised to complete the plant before March.

The
delay in completing the process had been repeatedly brought to the
attention of the authorities including the Minister concerned. The
Minister had also offered to convene a meeting of the stakeholder
agencies to discuss the issue, Mr. Sajeendran said.

Plant in participatory mode

The
government plans to set up the plant in the
Private-Public-Participation mode, and the government’s share would be
the land on which the plant has to be constructed. The firm selected for
the job will have to pay rent for the land. The profit of the company,
which is willing to invest in the project, would come through the sale
of electricity to be generated from the waste. Going by the early
understanding, the Kerala State Electricity Board will buy power from
it. The details of the power purchase agreement would be worked out
later, he said.

At the same time, it is not clear
whether the local bodies will have to pay user fees for processing the
waste generated by them at the new plant. Currently, the Kochi
Corporation is levying a fee from the neighbouring local bodies for
treating the refuse, he said.