New project to generate power from solid waste

TINSUKIA, March 23: Tinsukia Municipal Board, with the active help of the district administration, has gone a long way towards installing an ambitious project to dispose the solid waste off in a highly scientific way to generate electricity. A Kolkata-based company - Sarbanand Impex - has already been invited for the project and it has completed the preliminary works for installation of the same. Explaining the method of generating electricity from municipal garbage, Uday Narayan Sarmah, project director of the Company, in a press meet on March 16 at Tinsukia, said that the Rs 85 crore project will be completed within the next two years. The project - Sarbanand Power Project, Tinsukia - is expected to generate 10 megawatts electricity daily by consuming 300 metric tons of garbage. Since the required amount of waste cannot be collected from Tinsukia municipal area alone, the project will have to depend on garbage from the township of Digboi, Doom Dooma, Duliajan and Margherita. Apart from solid wastes, bio-medical wastes, bio-mass like ipomea, water hyacinth etc. can be used in the project. Speaking about the mode of finance for this venture, the project director informed that it would receive a World Bank loan at a very low rate of interest and subsidy to the tune of Rs 15 crore from the Central government. In the meantime, the district administration has allotted a plot of land measuring 20 bighas for the project and awaits the final settlement in this regard from the Government of Assam. But many a question raised by the newspersons present in the press meet were either evaded or left unanswered by the project director. The economic viability of the project was such a question. Although a good number of such projects have been started all over the country, there is no instance of a single project being completed anywhere. Moreover, the company's bindings to sell its product i.e. electricity only to the bankrupt ASEB is another matter of embarrassment. But it was assured from the Company that there would be no hide-and-seek regarding the project and Sarbanand Impex had come out with a positive outlook for this project and implored for a general consciousness amongst the public for proper disposal of waste. It is also expected that apart from the direct employment in the project, some ancillary business might be sprouting up. The waste products like ashes amounting to five to seven per cent of the total garbage can be used for brick making. Moreover, the technology to be applied in the process of incineration is not hazardous to the environment.