Power push from waste

Patna: The urban development department has revealed a scheme to generate 300MW of power from solid waste generated in Patna.

Minister Suresh Sharma said the waste problem has emerged as a big challenge and the department has prepared a plan to turn it into wealth. He was speaking at a news meet presenting the department’s annual report card on Friday.

Patna Municipal commissioner Anupam Kumar Suman said the plan envisages producing upto 300MW of electricity within eight months. For this, over 700 tonnes of solid waste will be used, giving impetus to sustainable energy production from municipal solid waste.

Suman, however, did not specify the project cost, its location or the name of the company to undertake the project.

“We have started converting waste into fertiliser in Muzaffarpur which has been praised by the farmers using them. We want to expand such facilities in other urban areas in Bihar,” said minister Sharma, accompanied by principal secretary, urban development, Chaitanya Prasad.

Top sources in Patna Municipal Corporation told The Telegraph that many companies had shown interest in the past but the project slowed down because they failed to comply with the civic body’s implementation timeline.

Commissioner Suman also spoke on dedicated vending zones, which he said will start in a month.

Patna has been divided into 14 vending zones and the process to provide vendors the licence has started. Suman said: “The registered vendors will be given GPS-based identity cards.”

Replying to a query on town area development, principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad said: “We have plans to set up town area development authorities in urban areas following in the footsteps of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, aimed at checking unplanned urban growth.

“The process to appoint master consultancy for planning the town development scheme has been completed,” he added.

On increasing revenue sources of urban local bodies, Chaitanya said the department will re-formulate its trade licensing, mobile towers and advertisement policy to increase the profitability of the bodies.

Courtesy: The Telegraph