The city corporation is planning to set up 3,000 new biogas plants and 8,000 ring compost units with the support of interested residents and firms.
The households will be selected by January-end, and they will get a subsidy of up to 50% of the cost of installing the units.
K.V. Baburaj, chairman of the standing committee on health, said an agency had already been identified after the tendering process for the implementation of the project in select households.
For the biogas plant, the total cost of installation is ₹13,500. Of this, ₹5,000 will be given as subsidy. Applications can be submitted through the Health Inspectors’ offices or the regional offices of the city corporation. The ring-compost unit costs around ₹2,500.
The corporation is urging residents forums to encourage households to take advantage of the project. Training will be imparted for proper maintenance of the units. As part of the decentralised waste management initiative, civic bodies, including the corporation, have been aggressively promoting the setting up of biogas plants and ring compost units for more than three years with the support of various agencies and residents associations. More than 2,000 such units were set up in various parts of the corporation to manage bio-degradable waste.
Interestingly, the Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT) too had come up with similar projects under the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Around 1,100 biogas units were set up in the district with technical support from ANERT. Moreover, there was special consideration for families of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities. ANERT also came up periodic maintenance support for the families for trouble-free operation of the units.
