Maharashtra: BMC plans waste-to-energy plant for Malabar Hill, Tardeo.

The BMC plans to set up a waste-to-energy plant in D ward, which covers Malabar Hill, Walkeshwar, Nana Chowk, and Tardeo areas, through corporate funding and rope in resident associations to manage it.

According to the proposal, the plant will process two metric tonnes of wet waste daily and generate around 250 units of electricity that will be sold to a power supply company. The foundation work of the plant on a civic-owned vacant plot near Haji Ali junction has been completed and the BMC will soon procure the machine through corporate funding.

Assistant municipal commissioner of D ward Prashant Gaikwad said, "The idea is to collect small quantities of wet waste from the ward which will reduce BMC's load to transport it to the dumping ground. We will involve resident associations to collect the waste and manage the plant."

Recently, the BMC awarded a Rs. 1,100-crore contract to set up a major waste-to-energy plant to process 600 metric tonnes of waste at Deonar. The contractor will set up the plant and sell the generated electricity in the open market.

Civic officials said since the BMC promoted waste segregation at source and its processing at local level, which helped reduce daily garbage collection to 6,600 metric tonnes from 7,500 metric tonnes, they decided to set up a small waste-to-energy plant in D ward.

They added that it is essential to rope in residents to make such schemes successful, as earlier too a few areas had started waste segregation and processing schemes, but they failed due to lack of interest.

V Citizen Action Network chairperson Indrani Malkani, who lives in D ward, said, "It is good to involve local groups in the process, to primarily ensure pure wet waste collected at source level, which is must to make such plan sustainable. Earlier, too we had discussed similar plans." Last year, the BMC had started a dry waste segregation and processing unit in D ward through private funding.

ET