A bio-gas plant is what is in the Coimbatore Corporation’s mind to process wet, organic waste that it had proposed to process through micro-composting centres (MCCs).
The Corporation had proposed to construct 69 MCCs across the city to process locally the waste collected from houses. This, it said, was a decentralised approach to waste management and would help it cut the cost of fuel spent on taking the waste to its dump yard in Vellalore.
But, of the proposed 69 MCCs, the Corporation could go ahead with only 51 as at 18 places the residents of the area where it had proposed the MCCs voiced opposition. And, of the 51 MCCs, six were in use and 12 were ready for use.
To make good the loss of not being able to construct the 18 MCCs, the Corporation was thinking of constructing a bio-gas plant, Commissioner Sravan Kumar Jatavath said.
The capacity of each of the 18 plants varied from two to five tonnes and keeping in mind the quantity to be process, the Corporation would go in for a bio-gas plant. It would construct the bio-gas plant using the funds it should have used for the 18 MCCs, he added.
Currently, the Corporation was thinking of a bio-gas plant but if the situation demanded that it go in for two or three plants, the civic body would increase the number of plants required. But that would depend on the land available for construction of such plants, areas or wards that would not be covered by the 18 MCCs and other factors, said Corporation sources.
The Corporation would use the gas to either power street lights or give it to the Tangedco so that it could draw the same quantity of power elsewhere as that help bring down its power bill, they added.
