Vishwas Dass
Bhubaneswar, Feb 13: The housing and urban development (H&UD) department in its report on solid waste management (SWM) in Orissa has seen Bhubaneswar’s potentiality to generate energy from solid waste.
The department has found power generation through municipal waste is feasible in the capital city where the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) generates huge solid waste.
The report submitted by H&UD commissioner-cum-secretary G Mathivat-hanan to the national green tribunal (NGT) says none of the 111 urban local bodies (ULBs) in Orissa treat solid waste scientifically causing grave environmental hazards. The report also highlighted that none of these ULBs comply with the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and handling) Rules, 2000.
Notably, a regional landfill and SWM treatment plant has been proposed for the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack—comprising a population of 15 lakh. An estimated `59 crore would be spent to develop the landfill site which would be used to generate power.
BMC and Cuttack Municipal Corporation’s (CMC) joint solid waste generation is around 550 tonnes per day for which a plant would be developed under public private partnership mode.
Power would be generated by burning solid waste in excess air (oxygen) to produce power which requires 300 tonne per day of trash. BMC spokesperson Dipti Rani Sahoo was not available for comments on the issue.
The report has said despite Berhampur’s solid waste generation of 138 tonne per day (TPD) and Sambalpur’s 100 TPD, only a special purpose vehicle has been formed by the government. That implies, in both Berhampur and Sambalpur corporations, it would take a few years to materialise the SWM project.
