Delhi to have China-like waste-to-energy plant

Delhi will get a new waste-to-energy plant in Narela in September which will initially produce 24 MW of power by using 1,300 metric tonnes of municipal waste per day. The project, according to officers, is the first-of-its- kind in India and is based on the pattern of one in China.

‘The plant will be inaugurated for trial run on 5 September and full-fledged operation is scheduled in November,’ said Vijay Prakash Pandey, chairman of environment management services committee in North DMC. The plant which is being constructed on a 100-acre land on the Narela-Bawana landfill site is expected to be completed by 31

August. 

As per the agreement with the corporation, the concessionaire, Delhi MSW Solutions Ltd, has been been assigned to use the garbage of two zones of North DMC- Civil Lines and Rohini which collectively produces over 1,300 metric tonnes of municipal waste per day. ‘Around 40 per cent of the municipal waste is combustible which can be used to make refuse-derived fuel (RDF), the main constituent of waste-to-energy plant while 10 per cent is used as organic manure,’ said A Sathyamurthy, project head. 

He further explained that 30 per cent of municipal waste contains moisture which evaporates in the process and 20 per cent goes to landfills, significantly reducing the burden on landfill sites which are used to dump municipal waste.