The Waste to Energy programme taken up by BMC is envisaged to generate 30% of energy from the available waste. The Corporation is in consultation with eight companies, including a US based company, which has a technology to convert 100 tonnes waste into 4MW of energy. As of today, available technologies can only generate 1MW of energy from 100 tonnes of waste.
The waste to energy plant would be set up in an area of eight acres which is available with the Corporation, for a period of 30 years. As per the programme, the technology can process mixed waste except glass, metal and construction material.
“We are planning to introduce the waste to energy programme on a PPP model. It will go to the state government, political council and senior municipal officials for recommendations and suggestions so that the policy matter is taken care of in the beginning itself followed with technical evaluation, financial evaluation and tendering.
“The companies we are in consultation with are planning to offer solutions ranging from Waste to Energy, Conversion of Waste to Manure and Waste Recycling. We have seen seven models till now and are in the process of assessing the same.”
Solid Waste Management Initiatives
Currently, SWM is done in house by the Municipal Corporation. Corporation has provided the facility of door to door collection to all the 70 wards for which rag pickers are hired. Each household is charged `30 per month for the collection. But now we have a plan to integrate SWM where a company will be assigned to collect, transport and process waste. We had a workshop on Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) recently where seven reputed companies of the country participated.
There are certain NGOs who depute their workers for the collection of waste and the corporation pays them for their salaries. As of today, there are five centres of plastic collection in Bhopal. We are going to start more such centres. When rag pickers segregate plastic waste content, they sell it to the plastic centre with the help of an NGO – Sharthak and earn extra money.
Besides this, recycling of waste is done in Katni and Satna districts of Madhya Pradesh, which have cement factories. Plastic collection is transported to those districts for conversion from waste to energy. An incinerator is run by a private agency for the processing of bio-medical waste. There are certain government hospitals from where the agency is collecting the waste and disposing it off.
Public utilities with modern facilities
Public utility initiatives include introduction of a system – where we inform the parents of new-born babies regarding the vaccination programme. The Property Online System introduced recently is helping people deposit property taxes online.
“We have developed over 100 public toilets in Bhopal with the help of Sulabh International which is also been assigned the job of maintaining it. The services offered are chargeable at nominal rates ranging from `1 to `5. It is a self sustainable model running successfully today. Rain Basera is another public utility doing good to people at times of inclement weather conditions and cold wave by giving them shelter and food. People are provided with blankets, lunch packets, dinner packets at nominal rates and free accommodation as a part of the utility.”