The proposed waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram is likely to miss the deadline as the State government has decided to start the process for setting up the plant afresh.
After scrapping all steps taken so far for establishing the plant, the government is now scouting for a transaction advisor for the new plant.
The mandate of the transaction advisor will be to assist the government on all matters of the proposed plant, including selection of technology. It will also have a role in deciding the financial and managerial aspects of the new plant. The Suchitwa Mission, the nodal agency for the State government, is coordinating the selection of the transaction advisor.
The authorities have shortlisted seven companies, which according to one of the officials of the Mission, have expertise in the business of solid waste management. These agencies will have tie-ups with foreign firms too. Once the advisor firm gives its suggestions, tenders will be floated through the corporation for installing the plant, he said. It has been generally accepted that a waste-to-energy plant should come up at Brahmapuram. There were a few technologies available in the market for generation of power from refuse. The ideal one for Kochi would be suggested by the transaction advisor, the official said.
It was earlier decided that a modern plant with an installed capacity to process 500 tonnes of biodegradable waste a day would come up at Brahmapuram. The government had also set a deadline of March 2014 for setting up the plant, which was also projected as a replacement to the ailing plant that the corporation had put up at the site a few years ago.
The government nullified all the measures it had initiated earlier, including the shortlist of three firms for setting up the plant as it found that the proposals of the firms unviable. It was the public resistance against the faulty plant that forced the State government to promise a new plant.
Though the corporation had identified an agency for rectifying the machines and making the plant operational, the piling up of untreated waste had triggered public resistance. The government announced the decision to set up a new plant as part of the conciliatory efforts.
