BENGALURU: It seemed like the ideal solution to the garbage littering the city: Send wet waste to bio-methanisation plants for conversion to methane gas and use the power generated for streetlights.
But although the city has 10 bio-methanisation plants run by Ashoka Biogreen Pvt. Ltd, using technology provided by the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) , Pune, the BBMP is not providing them with adequate wet waste and has reportedly not even parted with the maintenance fee required for their smooth functioning.
While each plant requires at least five tonnes of wet waste a day to function optimally, they are not able to work efficiently as the right sort of garbage is not being sent to them in the required quantity, according to those involved in running them.
“We may be forced to shut down the bio-methanisation plant at the city market as we are not being given the waste we need. Either we get too little waste or over and above the specified requirement of five tonnes a day. The irony is that although the city market generates an average of 80 tonnes of waste every day, the plant does not even get five tonnes most days,” company officials regret.
The 35 to 40 units of power generated by each of the plants every day is supposed to go to the grid for use in lighting of street lamps. But even this is hampered owing to BBMP's lack of cooperation, they complain.
“Not only are we not getting enough waste, the BBMP owes us Rs 3.5 crore in maintenance fee. As a result we are finding it difficult to run our operations. Repeated requests have gone in vain,” they say.
When contacted, Mayor B. N. Manjunath Reddy assured he would look into the matter. “The company is fussy in accepting the garbage too. I inspected a few plants and streamlined things. The due of Rs. 3.5 crore is an exaggerated figure. But I will set matters right,” he said.
