BENGALURU: In around one-and-a-half years’ time, Bengaluru will begin turning a portion of its waste into energy, enabling the city to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills and reduce the burden on waste management plants. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday virtually laid the foundation stone for the 11.5MW power plant to be set up on 10 acres of land in Bidadi on the outskirts of Bengaluru. It is the first waste-to-energy plant in the state.
Around 600 of the 5,000 tonnes of waste that people in Bengaluru generate daily, will be used to supply power to Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL). This will result in annual savings of Rs 14 crore which Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike spends to transport and manage that amount of garbage, officials said. However, the challenge will be to ensure that the waste is converted into Refuse- Derived Fuel, they said. After the inauguration, the Chief Minister told media that Karnataka is taking a leap in green energy by setting up such a plant under the Centre’s AatmaNirbhar Bharat policy and that most of the equipment used to create the facility will be made in India.
The State plans to expand the plant in future and generate around 80.59 million units of power and supply it to the state grid and also to other states. Through incineration, biogas, fertilizer and electricity can be generated which is the need of the hour.
He said that eventually, Bengaluru will supply around 25% of its waste to KPCL. KPCL officials said the plant would begin functioning from 2022 and that the tender for the construction of the plant at a cost of Rs 240 crore has been awarded to ISGES Heavy Engineering Limited, Noida, and Hitachi Zosen India Private Limited. BBMP and KPCL will each invest Rs 130 crore in setting up the unit. BBMP officials said the plant will make them eligible for for 35% subsidy from the Centre and 23.3% subsidy from the state government under the Smart City project and Swachch Bharath Mission.