KCB8217;s biogas project falls flat

MUMBAI, May 7: What could have been the ideal means of propagating the use of alternative energy sources in the Khadki Cantonment Board KCB...

MUMBAI, May 7: What could have been the ideal means of propagating the use of alternative energy sources in the Khadki Cantonment Board KCB by the use of biogas has virtually proved to be a non-starter.

Around one and half years back, the Khadki Cantonment Board KCB had begun experimenting with the possibilities of using biogas. Since a local voluntary organisation, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, evinced keen interest in the project to the extent of totally executing the project besides bearing the financial cost, the former cantonment executive officer B Thayalan decided to go ahead and initiate the ambitious project in Ward No 7 near a public toilet located in East Khadki.

According to cantonment executive officer Ajay Kumar, the spot was ideal for the project. Moreover, had the project clicked, the cantonment board could have initiated similar projects in other areas. However, the project was doomed to failure from the beginning.

8220; The entire project was to be handled by the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi. The cantonment board had nothing to do with the project barring provision of land,8221; he explained, adding that around 12 Class IV employees of the cantonment board were provided accommodation near the Lokmanya Tilak High School on the Mula river. The cost of the project was estimated at a modest Rs. 40,000 the chief aim being to familiarise the local residents with the use alternative energy sources and fuels.

According to Ajay Kumar, the project failed to click and developed serious technical faults at least three times in the last one and half years.

Instead of producing odourless biogas for the use of the local residents, a foul stench began pervading the area causing untold misery to the nearby residents.

The biogas plant was connected to the nearby public toilet through a pipeline with the waste matter being disposed into a well covered with an inverted tank which was supposed to rise with the pressure of the formed gas. But this did not happen, and instead, the local residents began complaining about the foul odour, Ajay Kumar explained. Although the experts of the voluntary organisation were summoned by the cantonment board a number of times, the efforts to lift the inverted tank with the help of a crane also did not yield results. Sources in the cantonment board alleged that the experts failed to evince interest in the project. Following innumerable complaints received from the local residents, Ajay Kumar said that he had decided to close down the project temporarily and maintained that the cantonment board was still exploring the possibilities of reviving the project. The officials of the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi were not available for comment.