Plans on to upgrade Lamdeng waste plant
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 07 2025: A plan is in the pipeline to upgrade an ageing fleet of machinery at the Lamdeng Solid Waste Management Plant.

The plant at present is processing less than 100 metric tonnes of solid waste a day.

Work has already begun to acquire funding and increase this capacity to 300 metric tonnes, said sources.

Imphal city area under Imphal Municipal Corporation (IMC) generates 130-150 metric tonnes of solid waste daily.

And this amount of solid waste generated per day is expected to increase to around 170 metric tonnes by 2035 .

However, the Lamdeng Solid Waste Management Plant at present barely has the capacity to process 100 metric tonnes of solid waste a day.

The Lamdeng plant was installed in 2014 and with age, it is suffering from constant wear and tear of the machinery.

The machinery require frequent repair and maintenance, and this has affected the plant's capacity and efficiency to process solid waste, said sources.

A reliable source who has knowledge of the plant said when the plant was installed, it had a plan to produce electricity besides producing compost from the solid waste.

The plan to produce electricity, however, has not materialised.

Notably, a trial run for producing electricity was conducted and then Chief Minister N Biren Singh had inaugurated the power plant virtually on March 23, 2021 .

However, the power plant till today has not generated electricity, said the source.

The power plant was taken up as a PPP (Public-Private Partnerships) model, but because it wasn't feasible, the company which was supposed to run the plant abandoned it and left, claimed the source.

The construction of the Lamdeng Solid Waste Management Plant started in 2009 and became operational in 2014 .

The machinery at the plant has a life-span of 10 years.

Ageing and frequent wear and tear has reduced the capacity of the plant to process the solid and waste and convert them to compost, said the source.

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the machinery was earlier upgraded and its capacity to process solid waste per day was increased to 150 metric tonnes.

However, the plant at present is unable to process even 100 metric tonnes of solid waste a day, added the source.

With its capacity reduced, the plant is struggling to process 130-150 metric tonnes of solid waste which Imphal city generates in a day.

When some of the solid waste is converted into compost, the remaining are disposed of in landfills.

At the plant, single-use plastics are separated from recyclable plastics and those which can be converted into compost are processed.

The presence of large quantities of single-use plastics is a problem as they fill up landfills quickly, causing inconveniences in all spheres, said the source.

To increase the capacity of the plant and resolve most of the issues, there is a need for upgrading the ageing fleet of machinery.

Hence, work has started to upgrade to the machinery and increase the daily processing capacity to 300 metric tonnes, said the source.

During a meeting recently, Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla had given the green light to upgrade the machinery.

And, for this upgrade, funds will be sought under the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme (NESIDS) .

Until the funds for the upgrade is sanctioned, the present fleet of machinery will be used to process solid waste, informed the source.

The source further informed that there is no plan at present to install a new solid waste management plant.

The construction of anew solid waste management plant would require at least 41 acres of land.

Finding appropriate land is difficult and hence there is no plan to build another solid waste management plant at present, said the source.

On the other hand, the 26 towns in Manipur are managing their own solid waste and using composting pits, said the source.

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