The North Delhi Municipal Corporation launched India’s largest waste-to-energy plant at Narela-Bawana on Friday. Venkaiah Naidu, Union minister for urban development, inaugurated the project at the Civic Centre. The project will use 2,000 metric tonnes of waste every day to generate 24 mega watt of energy. The plant is expected to provide respite from overflowing landfill sites in Delhi as it will incinerate the waste to generate power. Delhi has four landfill sites, of which three — Bhalswa (North Delhi), Ghazipur (East Delhi) and Okhla (South Delhi) — are overflowing. The landfill site at Narela-Bawana, which is also hailed as the first “scientifically” engineered landfill in Delhi, is the only one that still has capacity left.The project, built over 100 acres of land, has been developed on public private partnership model by Ramky Group, a Hyderabad-based waste management company, in collaboration with the North Corporation.
As per the agreement, the electricity generated from the plant will be sold by the concessionaire. However, the company will share 3℅ of the profit with North Corporation. “Thus the civic agency will become the first corporation in Delhi to generate revenue from the project. The decision has been taken on the directions of National Green Tribunal,” said a senior north corporation official.Officials say the tendering for the integrated municipal solid waste to energy plant at Narela-Bawana was done in 2009. It included door-to-door collection and composting of waste, segregation of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) (which can be used as a fuel and to generate electricity) at the landfill and establishment of waste to energy plant.
“In 2010, the concessionaire started door-to-door collection of waste from Rohini and Civil Lines zones. It also started composing and storing the segregated RDF. However, disposal became an issue. To resolve the problem, process to establish a waste to energy plant started,” said a senior Department for Environment Management Service official.But the project got delayed due to a dispute between the North Corporation and Ramky Group over alleged violations of agreement. Work was resumed after NGT stepped intevened in December 2016. “After the NGT’s direction, the contractor started running the WTE plant on trial basis and using half of the RDF for producing energy,” said a senior North Corporation.
“At the WTE plant, both the boilers (each with a capacity to consume 600 tonnes of RDF) are ready to use. We have also received grid connection and completed other formalities. As soon as the formal inauguration is done, the project will run to its full capacity,” said Abhay Ranjan, of Ramky Group. Delhi has two waste-to-energy plants at Ghazipur and Okhla landfill sites. The Ghazipur plant uses about 2,000 tonnes of garbage and produces 12 megawatt of energy. Similarly, the Okhla landfill waste-to-energy plant has a capacity to produce 12 megawatt capacity from 1,200 tonnes of garbage.
Source:HT
