Indore reaping benefits of waste-to-wealth project
Source: Chronicle News Service / Arishrona Longjam

Imphal, January 31 2024: True to its glory of being the cleanest city for seven consecutive times in the Swachhata Survekshan, Indore is generating a monthly revenue of Rs 3 to 4 crore from its daily wastes through the Bio-CNG Plant located in the city, which is also the largest such plant in Asia.

The city, which has a population of around 32 lakh and total number of 85 wards, generates around 500 tonnes of waste on daily basis with around 600 garbage trucks utilised every day to collect the waste from residential as well as commercial areas.

The waste materials are then transported to the Bio-CNG Plant where they are used as raw material for producing Bio-CNG.

With a daily capacity of processing 500 tonnes, the Plant produces 17,000 kg of CNG, half of which is used to fuel the public transport carriers in Indore and the remaining half supplied to industrial and commercial units as green fuel.

The Bio-CNG produced from the Plant has methane content of over 91 per cent.

Machineries used in the Plant are imported from UK, Germany, Italy and Denmark.

The policy of managing the waste not only brings revenue to the city but also addresses the issue of pollution to a great extent.

The digestate, a nutrient-rich substance which is by-product of anaerobic digestion of the waste materials, are segregated into solid and liquid.

The solid digestate is dried and used to produce high nutrient bio-compost while the liquid digestate is utilised in producing liquid fertiliser.

With the help of the Plant, the city has been able to replace 16,000 litres of fossil fuel with Bio-CNG daily.

It also leads to reduction of carbon emission by 1.3 lakh tonne per annum.

The Plant is managed and run by Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) in PPP model in an area spread over 15 acres.

During a visit to the Plant by a team of journalists, who was on a media tour sponsored by PIB Imphal and PIB Bhopal, IMC additional commissioner Siddarth Jain said that the city produces around 12,000 tonnes of waste on daily basis.

Of them, 60 per cent are wet wastes and 40 per cent dry.

Recyclable wastes are recycled and the others are used as fuel for factories.

This is an example of circular economy through which waste products are turned into wealth as is evident from revenue generation of Rs 3 to 4 crore a month, reasoned Siddarth Jain.

Regarding the achievement of winning the award of cleanest city for seven consecutive times, he said that the status was not achieved easily.

It took three years of comprehensive planning, extensive awareness and public participation to achieve the feat for the first time.

Several initiatives were taken up to promote cleanliness through competitions.

As a result of the extensive works taken up by the Corporation, people of Indore now bring out wet and dry wastes separately when garbage trucks pass by their lanes, which makes segregation easy.

The Corporation charges a monthly fee of Rs 150 for families and Rs 400 for shops and commercial establishment.

Penalties are imposed for violation of the cleanliness regulations implemented by the corporation and the penalty amount ranges to a nominal fine up to Rs 3 lakh.

The roads of the city are swept by 23 mechanical sweeper machines on daily basis and these machines collect 50 to 60 tonnes of dust a day.

All the garbage collector trucks are fitted with GPS devices to monitor routine operation in their assigned routes.

Any attempt to divert from the assigned routine by the drivers will send alert alarm to the control room, confided the additional commissioner.

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