Waste Effort Brings Light Into Mumbai's Homes
Very soon, Mumbaikars will say "Let there be light" every time they dump their trash. With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) working to introduce new techniques of waste management, the metropolis of Mumbai will soon enjoy electricity generated out of municipal solid waste.
The Rs 350 crore SoundCraft Industries (SIL) has bagged the first project of its kind in India to convert municipal solid waste into electricity. SIL's foray into waste management will start with this Rs 145 crore project, which will convert 1,000 to 1,200 tonnes of municipal solid wastes per day to 12.8 MW of electricity.
SIL plans to set up this facility at Deonar, in suburban Mumbai, on a build-own-operate basis for a period of 30 years. "This is only the first of several such projects we have in mind. It will give us economies of scale if we can bag more such projects," says SIL chairman Raj Basantani. The company has already put in a Letter of Intent (LoI) to the municipal corporation of Visakhapatnam and proposes to expand its plans to Surat, Delhi and Navi Mumbai as well.
Out of the Rs 145 crore that the project will cost, SIL plans to bring to the table Rs 58 crore in equity, with the rest to be funded by long-term debts from institutions.
However, the project is yet to achieve a financial closure as it is waiting for a power purchase agreement (PPA) to come through. Talks are on with both BSES Ltd and Tata Power for a PPA agreement. "We hope that the PPA will be signed in the next couple of months and then commercial production will start from December 2003," says a senior BMC official in the waste management department.
The months of the monsoon will become terrible for Mumbaikars if such waste management programmes are not encouraged, as BMC will require another 600-800 hectares of land to dispose of its waste, which the city can't provide. "The companies will have to understand that this is an environment and health driven project that needs to be looked at from a social angle as well," says the BMC official.
SIL has already acquired 50,000 square metres of land from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai at the rate of Re 1 per square metre. BMC will also provide a minimum of 1,000 tonnes of waste per day, free of cost, as raw material. SIL has tied up with the US-based waste management company, Ericson, for the technical know-how. Ericson manages 22 such plants across the world. The plant machinery is likely to be provided by Rolls Royce.
So, the next time you dispose of your garbage, there might be more to it than just cleaning up the house. By doing so, you might well be providing the raw material to light up your home.
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