The Mohali municipal corporation (MC)’s General House will meet on Thursday after a five-month hiatus during which 37 resolutions, including the floating of tenders for construction of a compressed biogas plant at Samgauli village in Dera Bassi, will be tabled.
The proposed biogas plant will help alleviate Mohali’s trash troubles by converting wet waste from six urban local bodies -- Mohali, Banur, Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, Lalru and Nayagaon -- into compressed biogas, which can be used as fuel in vehicles.
Since June this year, Mohali has been reeling under a waste management crisis as the Phase 8-B dumpsite site was closed, in wake of a high court rap. This had left the MC’s 14 resource management centres (RMCs) in the city overflowing with waste, prompting the civic body to suspend garbage collection from GMADA areas.
For years, the RMCs have been tackling over 150 tonnes of garbage on a daily basis — a significant portion of which come from GMADA areas. While most of the waste was processed, some of it was dumped at the Phase 8-B site, leading to accumulation of around 2.5 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste. In keeping with the HC orders, the 8-B site is now used only for bioremediation of legacy waste.
A Panchkula-based contractor has been hired temporarily to process the waste collected at the 14 RMCs. Both MC and GMADA will pay around ₹1,090 per tonne to the private contractor.
GAIL, HPCL show interest
While initially the Samgauli biogas project failed to attract bidders, the local bodies department is now hopeful as officials of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) visited the site last week and showed interest.
The firm that bags the tender will set up the plant at a cost of around ₹27 crore in 15 months and operate it for 20 years, paying a yet-to-be-decided royalty to MC.
“We are yet to decide the percentage of royalty as it will depend on the profit the company makes once the project is launched,” a senior MC official said.
Project hanging fire for 10 years
The project has been hanging fire for the last 10 years. Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had allotted the 39-acre space in Samgauli to the MC in 2013 for waste management, but the latter failed to make use of it.
Agenda for advertisement tender also to come up
An agenda for framing a fresh proposal to allot an advertisement tender is also likely to be tabled. Despite five attempts, Mohali MC failed to attract bidders, leading to a major ruckus in the last House meeting.
Now, MC has divided the 320 advertising sites in the city into various categories and six separate tenders will be floated.
The tender amount has also been reduced from ₹31 crore to ₹28 crore.
While 198 sites, including unipoles, gantry, and billboards, will be divided into four zones, which will be available for ₹26 crore, another category has been created for 33 bus queue shelters and a sixth category for 89 toilet blocks across the city. Initially, there were 339 sites, but 19 have been removed by MC due to ongoing road widening by GMADA in phases 8 to 11. Other proposals include a demand for cops at MC, besides transfers and postings of employees.
Box:
Waste woes:
Daily waste generation: 100 metric tonnes (MT)
Wet waste: 40 MT
Mixed waste: 60 MT
Nearly 100% waste generated on a daily basis in processed. While dry waste, including plastic, is recycled, wet waste is turned into compost.
Areas covered: Phase 1 to Phase 11, Sectors 65 to 80, along with Sector 48-C, which come under MC limits
Aerocity, IT City, Wave Estate, TDI, GILCO, Sectors 88, 89, 90, 91, 104 and 105, and Balongi, which come under GMADA
Legacy waste: 2.5 lakh cubic metres
The legacy waste has consistently brought Mohali down in the Swachh Survekshan rankings. While it managed to climb 31 spots to secure the 82nd position among 446 cities with a population over 1 lakh in the 2023 rankings, the legacy waste remains an eyesore.
