The state government has increased financial grant for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) bio-CNG and compost projects proposed under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). The grant has been increased to Rs155 crore.
The state’s high-power committee headed by chief secretary Ajoy Mehta in the meeting held on Friday revised the NMC’s grants under SBM. The committee also approved the civic body’s proposal seeking to replace Waste to Energy project with bio-CNG and compost projects.
Municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner Ram Joshi and deputy engineer Rajesh Dufare were present in the meeting and stressed the need for more funds and replacement of Waste to Energy Project with bio-CNG and compost projects.
The NMC had sought a financial grant of Rs267 crore under SBM a couple of years ago. The state had sanctioned Rs96.22 crore of which Rs70 crore was reserved for Waste to Energy project and remaining funds were for procurement of road sweeping machine and other machineries for solid waste management. Now, the grant has been increased by Rs58.78 crore. Thus, grant of Rs128.78 crore will go for bio-CNG and compost projects. The NMC will work out exact cost of the two projects and will ask private operators to bear the remaining cost.
The proposal is to produce bio-CNG using 500-tonne garbage and compost through 300-tonne garbage. The civic body will use bio-CNG in running its vehicles and city buses. The central government’s Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF) is likely to procure compost.
The Nagpur Solid Waste Processing and Management Private Ltd (NSWPMPL), a joint venture of Noida’s Essel Infraprojects Limited and Japan’s Hitachi Zosan India Private Ltd, was awarded Waste to Energy project. But the company delayed the project to a great extent. With the chances of project bleak, the NMC had issued a show-cause notice to terminate the contract with the company and proposed to replace it with bio-CNG and compost projects.
With clearance from the government, the civic body is likely to issue a final termination notice to the company soon.
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