KOCHI: Public sector oil company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Tuesday signed an agreement with the Kochi Corporation for setting up a waste-to-electricity project at Brahmapuram near here. The agreement to provide Viability Gap Fund (VGF) (a one-time or deferred grant provided to support infrastructure projects that are economically justified, but fall short of financial viability) for the waste-to-energy Project was signed at the Collectorate here.
The proposed plant will have capacity to process 300 MT of waste daily, which will be collected from the Kochi Corporation and the nearby municipalities/gram panchayats. Also, the accumulated waste will be processed at the plant.
The agreement was signed by Kochi Corporation secretary Amit Meena and BPCL-Kochi Refinery general manager (HR) M V Prabhakaran in the presence of Minister for Local Self-governments Dr K T Jaleel, Mayor Soumini Jain, Deputy Mayor T J Vinod and BPCL Kochi Refinery executive director Prasad K Panicker.
Standing committee chairpersons, Corporation councillors, ADM C K Prakash and BPCL senior officers S Somasekhar, GM, Advisory Engineering; Mathew P Thomas, Chief Manager, Energy and Environment; and George Thomas, Chief Manager, Estates and Administration, were also present. BPCL is associating with the waste-to-electricity project of the Kochi Corporation as part of the Swachh Bharat initiative. The project envisages to convert solid waste into electricity, under the urban waste management scheme.
BPCL will be granting the Corporation `25 crore as onetime Viability Gap Fund. The VGF will be utilised for the additional fund requirements of the Corporation for paying the difference between the quoted rate and rate approved by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) to the concessionaire, for the electricity produced under the project.