Consortium gets Waste to Energy project, to start work next month

Srinagar, Mar 23: After years of failed attempts, Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) finally allotted the Achan Waste-to-Energy (WtE) project to a consortium led by the Kashmir-based Highland Automobiles Private Limited.
The SMC Solid Waste Management Officer, Nazir Ahmad Baba, told The Kashmir Monitor that the corporation has issued the letter of intent to the consortium, comprised of three companies, which is expected to begin the work by the start of April.
“They are supposed to establish and make operational the waste to energy plant in 18 months, failing which they will have to pay Rs 50,000 a day as a penalty,” he said.
A Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative, the plant will be designed, developed and managed by the consortium, which has Key Stone Energy Limited, and Astrix companies as its constituents.
A source in the corporation said the estimated cost of the project was around Rs 120 crore. However, it could not be confirmed officially.
The contract stipulates that the Achan plant should generate 5-megawatt of electricity from 500 metric tonnes of the waste produced in the city daily.
“J&K government will buy the electricity at Rs 7.5 per unit,” the source said.
The contractor, as per the source, will work on the project “on Design, Finance, Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (DFBOOT) Mode for a period of 25 years with revision of tariff rates after every five years”.
No official from Highland Automobiles was ready to comment on how and when exactly the consortium was going to start the work.
With tenders floated at least half-a-dozen times, the project had been a non-starter since January 2015, when the National Green Tribunal (NGT) accorded sanction to establishment of the WtE plant.
The NGT had specifically stated that the project “shall be completed in a time bound manner and in any case within a period of one year”.
The aim of the project is to end the crisis of solid waste management in the city, and to create a mechanism for waste management at an affordable cost.
However, disagreement over power purchase rates or companies leaving the formalities mid-way were among the reasons hampering the project.
Following the delay, NGT took strong exceptions and rebuked SMC several times.
If efficiently implemented, the project would give a new meaning to MSW management and also create electricity to provide some stability to the otherwise-patchy schedule.