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Snags in Chennai waste disposal projects

S. Gopikrishna Warrier

CHENNAI, Oct. 4

WHILE the city is trying hard to grapple with its solid waste problem, build-operate-own-transfer (BOOT) projects with private sector participation for waste handling and disposal are showing no signs of getting off the ground.

The biggest setbacks are centralised handling and disposal of biomedical (hospital) waste. Healing Medicaids Pvt Ltd, which had been selected through the tendering process of the Chennai Corporation, has not been able to acquire land at Melkottaiyur vill age selected by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).

This has brought the tendering process to naught, and the process will have to be re-started from the scratch. Going through the tendering process again would mean negotiating again about the cost for the collection and disposal of biomedical wastes, acc ording to informed sources.

In the earlier tender the Chennai Corporation had signed an MoU with Healing Medicaids to collect and dispose biomedical wastes from its hospitals at a rate of Rs 9.50 per kg.

Though the Corporation dispensaries and health centres generate only 300 kg of waste per day, the project would need to be of 10 tonnes per day capacity. The BOOT operator can negotiate with other Government and private hospitals to collect and dispose o ff their wastes.

In the case of the waste-to-energy (WTE) project proposed at Perungudi it is the issue of subsidy that has brought the matters to a halt. The State Government entered into an agreement for a 14.85 MW power plant utilising 600 tonnes of unsegregated munic ipal solid wastes (MSW) per day, with EDL India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of EDL Australia.

However, the Union Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy has been insisting that its subsidy is restricted to 5 MW capacity WTE projects.

Due to the gap between the policy of the Central Government and the action of the State Government, the project has an unbridged gap of Rs 170 crore subsidy over a 15-year lease period.

At a meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Government earlier this year it was decided that this subsidy component would be shared equally by the Chennai Corporation, TNPCB and the State Government. Though the Corporation has resolved to contribute its share, there has been no such move from the other two partners.

A second WTE project from MSW is also caught up in the tendering procedures. This project, to be sited at Kodungiyur, would use 300-500 tonnes of unsegregated MSW every day. The initial proposal from the Corporation was for a composting project, which wa s later modified to a WTE project in addition to composting.