In an effort to go green in the public transportation segment and disposal of waste, significant initiatives are being taken up and implemented. One such is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was inked between the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, NTPC and Bhopal RNG Private Limited on October 12 (Tuesday) for setting up of 200 tonnes per day wet waste to bio-CNG plant. The MoU signed in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also covers setting of 400 tonnes per day dry waste torrefied charcoal plant.

Fuel which will be generated from the bio-CNG plant will be used in city buses.

A report in Times of India stated that nearly 800 tonnes of garbage is collected from Bhopal city  daily and the cost of disposing it for the Bhopal Municipal Corporation comes to Rs.333 per metric tonne. Once this plant comes up, the Bhopal RNG Private Limited will pay to BMC a sum of Rs.83 lakh per year as royalty and that too for the next 20 years. Besides this the bio-CNG that will be produced in this plant will be supplied at the rate which will be Rs.5 less than the market rate.

For setting up this plant a sum of Rs.40 crore is expected to be spent by the agency itself which will also not charge the authorities any processing fee for disposing the waste.

Apart from this a torrefied charcoal plant with 400 tonnes per day dry waste will be constructed by the NTPC. NTPC will also take care of the operation and maintenance of the plant for the next 25 years. The plant will come up at a cost of Rs.80 crore to be borne by NTPC.

Torrefied charcoal produced will be used by the NTPC power plants. Thus the BMC will save Rs.4.86 crore a year on solid waste disposal thanks to the plant.

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