There is good news for the inhabitants of the holy city Varanasi as their problem of waste management will be sorted to a considerable extent. In turn they will also get a bonus — electricity generated by processing the garbage.

The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which has tied up with the Varanasi Municipal Corporation to establish a waste-to-electricity plant is responsble for the dual-bonanza. This plant will come into operation by this year-end according to the officials of NTPC and VMC who also said that this facility will be the third largest to generate electricity from garbage after Mumbai and Delhi.

The raw material that will be used by the plant to generate electricity will consist of six tonnes of city’s waste. Besides the main plant, there will be three sub-plants set up within the city.

According to a senior official of VMC who was speaking to the media, an agreement will be signed between the Corporation and NTPC regarding the waste to energy plants for providing garbage. The official said: “With MoU, a major chunk of the city’s garbage will be disposed of at the NTPC waste-to-electricity plants.”

The NTPC official sharing the details said, the waste-to-electricity plants will have a receiving shed or a pit, a segregation facility, a sealed reactor, an emissions control system, an electrical and C&I system, civil work and a post-torrefaction handling facility.

Besides, the plant will adhere and comply with emission norms and it will be ensured that the plant is odourless and has an aesthetic environment with permissible noise limits. The waste-to-electricity plant being set up at Varanasi will have leachate treatment to prevent discharge of harmful gas.

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