MC goes against expert recommendations, floats tenders for repairs worth Rs 6.33 cr

The agenda of repair of the plant for Rs 6.33 Crore was passed in a hurry by the councillors in the General House, in January. The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress protested, which led to chaos in the House.

What the experts said

After the Municipal Corporation had taken over the operations of the plant, the then MC Commissioner KK Yadav had asked NITTTR to inspect, asses the working of the plant and submit a report whether the plant machinery can be repaired. As per the recommendations made by the NITTTR, the municipal solid waste processing facility at Dadu Majra requires a complete replacement of the machinery with new technology to operate efficiently.

On the status of the machinery at the plant, the report had said, “Most of the machinery installed is in a dilapidated or non-working condition, and cannot take full load to treat solid waste. Working machinery is old and needs complete replacement. The machinery breaks down after two hours of working and needs to be restarted.”

It was also specified that major parts are damaged. “Maintenance has not been carried out at the plant for many years because of which major parts of the machines are damaged and need to be replaced entirely,” the NITTTR experts had stated.

While Municipal Corporation mentions that with the repairs, it will be able to process 200 tonnes per day, IIT Roorkee, after a study, had stated that after the repair or maintenance of the existing machinery, the plant would be able to at best handle 60 to 65 TPD and if the civic body wants 200 TPD, it will have to get in additional new equipment.

IIT Roorkee had visited the plant on July 9 and submitted a report that said, “Overall, it is observed that the plant was constructed in 2008 as per the MSW 2000 guidelines. Now it is mandatory to follow the SWM 2016 Rules, which require segregated waste collection and processing. The best way is to set up a new modern 500 TPD plant for dry and wet waste treatment.

For dry or mixed waste, even after repair/maintenance of the existing machinery, shredder, trommels, etc., the existing plant will at best handle 60 to 65 TPD. Hence, if the corporation expects the plant to treat 200 TPD (40 per cent of 500 TPD), additional new equipment will be required and in case fully functional 500 TPD plant is required as per the SWM Rule 2016, then budgetary allocation towards Cap and Opex of the MSW treatment is required as per the SWM Rule 2016.”

What the MC says it will do with Rs 6.33 Cr
The MC officials said that in the budget, they will repair the primary shredder, trommel, cyclone dust collector, ID fan in dryer, rotary dryer, hot air generator, ballistic separator, trommel in wet waste and ETP plant. They said there will also be a replacement of conveyor belts, rollers, motors and the gear box.

“One secondary shredder is being replaced along with repair of other machinery. Due to defunct machinery, the plant does not work properly. With the upgradation of this plant, we shall be able to process all the dry waste (approx 200TPD) being generated in the city. This shall put a stop to waste going to the dumpsite. We shall also be floating the tender for the legacy waste bio-remediation and the Expression of Interest for the new waste plant, in the next fortnight,” a senior official of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation said.

The Garbage Processing Plant in Sector 25 (W) of Chandigarh was set up in 2008 and was being operated by JayPee Associates. The possession of the plant was taken over by the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh in June 2020, following which the survey of the machinery installed in the plant was conducted by IIT Roorkee.

Before the Chandigarh Municipal polls, the General House held a special meeting wherein it was specified that only a technology would help. Following the same, the waste to energy plant was approved. BJP councillors have in previous years been vocal about the defunct and obsolete machinery at the waste processing plant and now the repair of the same has been approved and given the go ahead.

In July 2021’s special House meeting about waste processing plant, officers had stated that about 550 metric tonnes of waste is generated daily in Chandigarh, of which merely 12 per cent was being processed, a reason why a new technology to have waste to energy plant was approved.

In the meeting, Joint Commissioner Sorabh Arora said that even if the civic body runs the machinery to its maximum limit, which is up to 14 hours a day, only 70 MT of waste will be processed.

He had stated, “I have studied it thoroughly and even if we run it for 14 hours a day, we are not able to process more than 70 MT. We do not understand how the Jaypee group claimed that the plant was processing up to 300 MT, because practically we cannot see that.” Of the waste generated daily, dry waste component is about 200 MT and kitchen waste or wet waste is about 150 to 175 MT. Meanwhile, about 75 to 100 MT of the total waste is mixed and about 125 to 150 MT is horticulture waste.