Raipur: Green light to city’s 1st waste processing unit

RAIPUR: City’s first waste processing unit has finally received approval and will be set up at Sakri trench ground.
This unit will generate reuse derive fuel (RDF) and farm manure by compost process from the waste collected from households across the city.
According to the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC), Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board has given the green signal to Ramki Group — a solid waste management company — to set up a waste processing unit at the Sakri trench ground.
The estimated budget of the project is Rs124 crore and the generated RDF will be supplied to cement companies and compost fertilizers to farmers.Talking to TOI, Ramki Group’s state head Yogesh Kumar said, “The company has also sent a proposal to the state government for a waste-to-energy plant. If approved, the power generation will be done after ensuring the smooth functioning of the garbage processing unit, which will generate RDF and fertilizer from the dumped garbage at Sarona trench ground. Garbage processing by scientific manner will start after a few months.”
The project will be carried in two phases.
Initially, garbage processing will be done to ensure the success of the trickiest process of the project, including segregation and conversion of dumped garbage.
However, the segregation of wet and dry garbage is being carried by the private solid waste management company at Solid Liquid Resource Management (SLRM), which was earlier allotted for developing farm fertilizers from compost process of leftover foods and biodegradable waste. After the garbage conversion process, power generation can be expected. Though the city’s sanitation work will be inspected under the Swachh Survekshan 2019 in December-end and January, the approval of waste-to-energy plant will surely help the civic body to bag some points.
Since the door-to-door garbage collection has started from April and officially inaugurated from May, the Ramki Group alleged that the RMC has outstanding dues.
A group executive said that they had verbally conveyed their concern to the RMC to clear the dues and were not pursuing the matter due to the moral code of conduct that was in force for the assembly elections, but now they will take strict action if payments get delayed.