North MCD inaugurates India's largest 'Waste-to-Energy' plant

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) inaugurated India's largest 'Waste-to-Energy' plant on Friday. The project will use 2,000 tonne of waste every day to generate 24 mega watt of energy and 1,300 mega watt of Refused Derived Fuel (RDF). The project was built at a cost of Rs 650 crore and spread across around 100 acre at Narela-Bawana.

Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, while inaugurating the project, said that solid waste management is one of the biggest challenges in the country. He added that the Swachh Bharat Mission cannot be successful until there is proper scientific solid waste management. Union Science and Technology minister Harsh Vardhan, who was also present on the occasion, further added that tonnes of sewer and solid waste everyday is generated in the country and its disposal is proving to be a huge challenge.

The capacity would be expanded further to process about 4000 metric tonnes of waste from present strength of 1300 MT waste.

"The disposal of 55 million produced solid wastes and 38 billion sewer wastes is a challenge and the Narela-Bawana plant is a step in that direction," North MCD Mayor Sanjeev Nayyar said.

"The plant offers India's first centralised and integrated facility for scientific processing of municipal solid waste. It boasts of composting facility, RDF facility, waste-to-energy plant and engineered landfill site at one place. The initiative is scientific and environment-friendly solution for disposal of waste. It would not only dispose of piles of waste but also convert it into electricity, said a senior North Corporation official.

"The civic agency will become the first Corporation in Delhi to generate revenue from the project. The decision has been taken on the directions of National Green Tribunal," he added.