A rare truce over trash: These biogas plants have everyone’s blessings

Civic body, RWA come together with proposal to establish five plants in Koramangala and elsewhere

A file photo of the biogas plant in Domlur, which has been closed since January. According to residents, the plant has now become a garbage dump of sorts.

While residents in various parts of the city are up in arms against garbage being processed in their backyards, given the poor management and the associated stench, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, with the support of the Koramangala 1st Block Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA), has come up with a proposal to install five biomethanisation plants in Koramangala and nearby areas.

Padmashree Balaram, president of the RWA, said two biomethanisation plants with a capacity of five tonnes have been proposed to be set up at Koramangala HT Wire near Jyoti Nivas College and near the Karnataka Special Reserve Police quarters in Venkatapuram. “The plants will handle wet waste from BTM constituency and are expected in a month’s time,” Ms. Balaram said.

RWA members visited the contractor’s existing plants in Malleswaram and Doddaballapur before giving their blessings for the project. “We studied the functioning to make sure they were compliant with all the laws. As it is an anaerobic biomethanisation plant, there is no smell. We were standing right next to the thing and did not know waste was being processed. The only possible smell would be of trucks coming in with wet waste,” she said.

BBMP executive engineer (South) Srinivas Reddy said three more biogas plants have been proposed near National Games Village, Tavarekere park, and the City Armed Reserve Colony, Adugodi. “The cost of each plant will be ₹1.1 crore. The five units will have a capacity of five tonnes each and will be used to manufacture biogas, which will be bottled and sold,” he said.

Problems aplenty at existing plants

Ten biomethanisation plants in the city have not been functioning for the past three months. They were shut down in January after a tussle between the civic body and the contractor

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Residents living near these plants point out that the closure has led to wet waste, which was earlier processed locally, being sent to far-off locations or to piggeries.

A resident of Domlur said that with the plant there closed since December (it was the first to be shut down), the segregation centre has become a spot for waste to be loaded before being sent off to landfills or piggeries. “Cattle have been grazing on the plastic that is dumped along with mixed waste. The entire area has become a garbage dump.”

In Koramangala, wet waste from hotels was processed locally but is now being transported by garbage trucks out of the ward. “The waste which was earlier being processed here is now being taken to the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation plant in HSR Layout and another composting unit 40 to 50 km away,” said Padmashree Balaram, president of the Koramangala 1st Block RWA.

BBMP executive engineer (SWM) Hemalatha said a committee has been formed to look into the functioning of biogas plants. “The committee will decide if the current contractor should continue operations,” she said. “We are trying to open them as soon as possible. They are small-scale plants and the waste from them is now being sent to composting units in the city such as Kannahalli, KCDC and Mavallipura.”

Rahul Anil Awhade, Bengaluru in-charge manager for Ashoka Biogreen Pvt Ltd., the contractor responsible for operating the plants, said they were in talks with the BBMP, which has called for another meeting in a week. “Till then the plants will remain closed,” he said. The company has claimed that the BBMP owes them ₹21.09 crore since December 2013 for civil work and operational costs.

The biogas plants closed since January include two in Jayanagar, and one each in Domlur, K.R. Market, Koramangala, Kudlu Gate, Begur, Nagapura, Kanakapura and Varthur.