2 waste power plants for Telangana
Centre to use Swachh funds to make electricity from these units viable
Hyderabad: Union urban development minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Friday that the Centre is focussing on encouraging production of electricity from municipal solid waste in a big way. Addressing an international symposium on municipal solid waste management here, Mr Naidu said he had three rounds of meetings with chemicals and fertilisers minister, H.N. Ananth Kumar on generating compost from solid waste, and power minister, Piyush Goyal on producing electricity through a similar initiative.
Noting that generating compost is not a profitable proposition, the minister said there is a proposal to provide subsidy of Rs 1,500 per tonne to encourage such activities. Mr Naidu also said that the power ministry is in the process of amending the Central Electricity Act, 2003 to include provisions on mandatory purchase of all power generated from municipal solid waste by state discoms.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has determined general tariff from waste to energy at Rs 7.90 per unit. “This rate is not financially viable so the gap in funding will be filled from the Swacch Bharat fund,” he said. He also said 16 more waste-to-energy plants are planned and will be commissioned on public-private-partnership mode in the next one year in different parts of the country generating 73.6 MW of power.
‘Special status is not zinda tilasmath’:
Taking a dig at critics of the Centre and the AP government, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that the special status was not like Zinda Tilasmath, the unani medicine, to solve all problems of the state.
He said that the ancient Amaravati town in AP would get heritage city tag and new capital Amaravati would benefit from the AMRUT scheme. “Eleven states have been granted special status. I know their condition. They are coming to me and seeking help. They expressed helplessness in even repaying 10 per cent loan and seek freebies,” he said. Mr Naidu made it clear there was no link between special status and AIIMS, IIT, IIIT, power cuts among others. He criticised YSRC leader Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for holding an indefinite fast in Guntur.