Howrah Municipal Corporation to generate electricity using garbage

The hillock made out of garbage, which has been considered to have only nuisance value, will soon be used to generate electricity. 

A power plant will come up in Domjur where the non-segregated garbage will be used to generate electricity. The residents of Belgachia in Howrah have always requested to remove the trenching ground that emits foul smell forcing the neighbours to shut their windows and doors round the clock. 

Piling of garbage in the trenching ground had turned the place to a hillock. The residents will now breathe a shy of relief as apparent non-productive garbage will be used to serve the people. 

Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has taken up the project to set up the unit in collaboration with an agency from Germany. Initially, the garbage from Belgachia trenching ground will be used. 

After the ground turns to a plain land, garbage collected from households everyday will be used to generate power.

The power plant will come up on a plot measuring 16 hectres at a cost of around Rs 3,400 crore. HMC has formed company jointly with the agency from Germany and it has been named as Swifel. 

Around 90 per cent of the project cost will be borne by the agency from Germany and the rest 10 per cent will either be given by the state government or the municipal corporation. 

The corporation has decided to sell out the generated power to CESC. The power plant will come up in Domjur which comes under the area where CESC do not have its set up. 

Thus WBSEDCL will be co-operating to transmit the generated power through underground cables to the nearest sub-station of CESC. The matter has been settled with the intervention of the state Power Minister Manish Gupta. 

The basic requirement to generate power is around 1,500 metric tonne per day and there will be generation of 50 MW power in an hour.

“The construction work of the power plant will begin in mid 2017 and the agency from Germany is soon going to commence the required pre-construction exercise. It will take two years to complete the construction work of the power plant and to make it fully functional,” said Commissioner of HMC Nilanjan Bandhyopadhyay.      

In 1990s, Kolkata Municipal Corporation had tried to produce electricity from garbage and two Bombay based firms had shown keen interest to do it. However, they had backed out as the KMC expressed its inability to supply the stipulated quantity of garbage daily.

The officials of the HMC are quite confident that the required amount of non-segregated garbage will not be a problem. 

The reason being households under the jurisdiction of the corporation has gone up with the inclusion of Bally Municipality in Howrah Municipal Corporation. No more garbage will be dumped in any trenching grounds. 

It will be directly taken to the power plants. Moreover, Howrah Improvement Trust may take up some housing schemes on the trenching ground at Belgachia which will be cleaned soon after the power plant starts functioning.