PATNA: Intelligent and sustainable waste management being an integral part of the Central government’s Smart Cities Mission, two cities in Bihar, selected under the ambitious programme, are making gainful use of technology to deal with their trash. Bihar’s first solid waste processing site was inaugurated in Muzaffarpur on Gandhi Jayanti.It converts organic waste into compost fertiliser. With the site fully functional, the city has become the only urban centre in north India which segregates 70% of its waste at the source. “We are making money out of waste.
We have sold two tonnes of compost so far. Once all the processing centres are operational, we can produce 25 tonnes of compost every day, which will be sold to farmers and residents,” said Muzaffarpur municipal commissioner Sanjay Dubey.
On the same day, instate capital Patna, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar laid the foundation stone for a `3,358 crore plant that will convert 1,000 metric tonnes of waste everyday into electricity, drinking water and fuel.
The plant will use gasification technology for the conversion in which there is no need to separate dry and wet garbage. The waste is heated to an extremely high temperature to be broken down at a molecular level.
According to the agreement between the state government and New Delhi-based company AG Dauters Waste Processing Private Limited, which is setting up the plant, the company will pay Patna Municipal Corporation Rs 770 for every 1,000 metric tonnes of waste it uses. PMC commissioner Anupam Kumar Suman said the civic body was expected to earn about Rs 20 crore revenue annually from the arrangment.
The Patna plant will be the second largest waste-to-energy plant in the world in terms of output after a similar facility coming up in Delhi’s Ghazipur, said AG Dauters’ managing director Ajay Girotra. At least 280 MW of electricity per hour, 2 lakh litres of drinking water and 2 lakh litres of fuel (diesel or cooking gas) per day are expected to be produced at the plant. If legacy waste is used, power production would rise to 400 MW per hour.