Ramky Enviro Engineers, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) private partner in undertaking the Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management Project at Jawaharnagar, will be soon taking up construction of the four-stage garbage-to-power plant to utilise 2,400 tonnes of garbage generating 48 MW power daily.
The power plant with technological support from one of China’s largest garbage-to-power firm Sanfeng-Covanta in Chongqing province, will take up to two years from the commencement of works to become operational once all government approvals are obtained, said GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu on Monday.
Briefing presspersons about his recent trip to China where he visited the plant along with the PPP partner representatives, independent engineer - Environment, Protection & Training Institute (EPTRI)’s director general A.K. Parida and others, he said that the government was urged to relax a rule prohibiting power plants within 25 km of the biological zone.
“Since it’s garbage-to-power plant and is located 15 km from the declared bio-zone we have sought an exemption,” he explained. The proposed plants got requisite permissions from the A.P. Pollution Control Board (APPCB). Power will be generated by incinerating the inorganic waste as 15 per cent of the organic waste is segregated. Each stage can incinerate 600 MTs a day to generate 12 MW and four such units are to be built at an estimated cost of Rs. 624 crore.
Euro norms
Mr. Krishna Babu said emissions from the incinerators will be Euro pollution standards compliant with little of sign of any smoke or particulate matter as was seen in the Chinese plant.
Ramky has been working on the bio-compost plant, a leachate collection unit to enable solar drying of the seeping liquid from the accumulated garbage and also the sanitary landfill in the last couple of years while the capping work is yet to begin, he said. Thus far, GHMC with a payable tipping fee of Rs.600 per tonne has paid Rs.35 crore with the consent of the IE to the firm. “Whenever any bill is raised, we are paying one-third of the amount,” he said. The Municipal Commissioner once again affirmed that there would be no change in the project deal and the municipal corporation’s commitment was for Rs. 250 crore only out of the total projected cost of Rs. 750 crore. And, if it gets approved under JNNURM, the civic body need not invest any amount, he added.
