Waste-to-energy plant to come up in Ongole.

The State government has decided to set up a waste-to-energy plant in Ongole. With this, the number of such plants proposed touches 11.

Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana reviewed the progress of the work on waste-to-energy plants at the interim Secretariat near here.

Mr. Narayana later told reporters that there were no proposals for the plant in Ongole initially as the waste generated from that city was not sufficient to set up a plant there.

The Ongole Municipal Corporation (OMC) had been dumping the waste generated from the city on margins of the national highway as there was no dumping yard.

Keeping this in view, the government had decided to take the waste generated in nearby municipalities and panchayats also into consideration and set up a waste-to-energy plant in Ongole. Tenders would be invited soon, he said.

There were a few environmental problems with regard to 10 plants proposed earlier.

Ninety % of the problems were solved and construction of plants would be started at the earliest. The government intended to complete the plants before January 2018 and commence operations. Officials were asked to clean the Ajithsingh Nagar dumping yard in the city so that housing for weaker sections could be taken up.

The government also wanted to make the municipalities as dump yard-free areas. Andhra Pradesh would be number one State in the country to achieve this feat, he said.

THE HINDU