The Capital may have finally found a solution to its garbage woes with the third, and largest, waste-to-energy plant being inaugurated on Friday.
The 24 megawatt (MW) Narela-Bawana waste-to-energy plant of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation was inaugurated by Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu at the Civic Centre. Mr. Naidu said though he was unable to visit the plant, which is towards the outskirts of Delhi, due to Parliament being in session, he would visit later.
Expressing his appreciation, Mr. Naidu said: “Solid waste management is one of the biggest challenges in the country. No matter how hard we work, the Swachh Bharat Mission cannot be successful without proper solid waste management.”
Public-private partnership
The Union Minister said the Narela-Bawana plant, which has come up on a private-public partnership model with Ramky Group at a cost of ₹458 crore, was the biggest such facility in the country. In all of India, there was 88MW capacity from waste-to-energy plants, said Mr. Naidu.
He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cleanliness mission would require the participation of people, a change in mindset and infrastructure development at the same time.
With waste-to-energy plants already functional at Timarpur-Okhla and Ghazipur, the Narela-Bawana plant will help reduce the pressure on the Capital’s three landfills.
Launched after delay
The plant was supposed to have been commissioned in 2013, but was delayed because of disputes over the rate for selling power.
Ultimately, the project was completed after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the Centre intervened.
Speaking at the inauguration, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Science and Technology Minister and Chandni Chowk MP, said there was untapped potential when it came to such plants. “We should have started this 24 years ago,” he said.
Acknowledging the potential of the plant, North Corporation Commissioner P.K. Gupta said that the capacity of the plant could be increased to 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage per day. “In the future, all garbage produced in North Delhi will be processed here,” he said.
