Power from solid waste on the cards

The Millennium City may soon generate nearly five-six megawatts of electricity from solid waste.

The Millennium City may soon generate nearly five-six megawatts of electricity from solid waste.

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The Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) and the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) are planning to generate electricity from solid waste at its Bandhwari plant on the lines of the Timarpur Okhla Municipal solid waste facility owned by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

Huda administrator Praveen Kumar and MCG commissioner Sudhir Rajpal held a meeting on Tuesday where they discussed the proposal.

Though the Bandhwari plant receives 800-900 metric tonnes of solid waste from Gurgaon and Faridabad every day, the plant is not equipped to recycle it. As a result, the residue is dumped at the landfill facility and there are reports that the waste is polluting the groundwater in the area.

The landfill site has become a major cause of concern for the MCG, which is the custodian authority of the plant.

The officials are of the view that if it is a viable option in Gurgaon (Bandhwari), they can go ahead with the plan and hire a reputed company or the firm working with the MCD and ask them to set up a plant at Bandhwari.

The MCD’s Timarpur power generation plant, run by a private company, generates 9MW electricity and caters to 8-9 lakh people in Delhi.

A senior MCD official said one metric tonne waste generates nearly 1MW of electricity.

The MCG commissioner, however, ruled out the possibility of scrapping the 30-year contract with the company currently in charge of the solid waste plant at Bandhwari, which has been in the line of fire from the Haryana Pollution Control Board (HPCB) for not being able to recycle the solid waste properly on a daily basis.

The HPCB has also sent a number of notices to the firm.

“I don’t think we will scrap the Bandhwari contract, which is generating some combustible fuel already. I will ensure that the company is able to generate electricity too,” said MCG commissioner Sudhir Rajpal.