Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) is laying emphasis on green technology to process the garbage generated in the city.
The CMC is planning to install a vermicompost plant and a biomethanation plant to process biodegradable waste. The vermicompost plant will have a capacity to process four tonnes per day, and the capacity of the biomethanation plant will be two tonnes per day.
Udupi city generates around 58 tonnes of garbage per day. Presently this garbage is being processed at the Solid Waste Management Plant located on 22 acres of land in Alevoor village near the city. The CMC would be taking up a pilot project of waste segregation at source in 3,000 houses in a monthThe vermicompost plant will be set up on 10 cents of land at the Alevoor Solid Waste Management Plant. According to CMC Environment Engineer M.K. Subrahmanya, the vermicompost plant will have two sheds – one with 24 pits and the other with 21 pits. Four tonnes of biodegradable waste would be put in a pit every day. “Farmers and people with gardens could use this vermicompost. We expect to make Rs. 48,000 per day by selling the vermicompost,” he said.
The vermicompost plant is estimated to cost Rs. 29 lakh and is expected to come up in six months. A minimum of two labourers would be required to look after the plant.
Biomethanation
The biomethanation plant will be established on five cents of land at Beedinagudde here and is estimated to cost Rs. 33 lakh.
Here two tonnes of biodegradable waste would be converted into slurry, which would then be fed into the digester of the biomethanation plant. Mr. Subrahmanya said the waste would decompose in two days and start emitting methane. This methane would be passed into a generator, which will produce 15 KV of power per day. A separate power line will be drawn from this generator and the power generated would be used to light 100 street lamps. In addition, the compost generated from his plant could also be sold.
Here the CMC expects to make Rs. 2 lakh per year by selling the compost and also save on electricity bill. “We are yet to get technical sanction from the State government for this plant. It may take a minimum of one year for this plant to come up,” Mr. Subrahmanya said.
“Besides utilising waste in an eco-friendly manner, we want to use green technology to promote a clean environment,” said CMC Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak.
