Delhi: Ghazipur mandi waste to produce power from November

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday inaugurated a 15 tonnes per day (TPD) waste-to-energy plant in Ghazipur, which will produce electricity by combusting biodegradable waste generated at the local poultry and fish mandi.
Kejriwal said the capital needed many such plants to ensure recycling of waste instead of it getting dumped in landfills. “The waste generated from this mandi will be combusted to create electricity.Delhi should be clean to be regarded as a national capital. But there are waste dumps all across, and there are three waste mountains in Delhi,” he said.
The plant, which will start functioning on November 20, will be able to convert 15 tonnes of organic waste into 1,500 units of power every day. “It is only through this judicious recycling that Delhi can prosper, or these mountains will keep on increasing in the next 10 years. The starting of this plant is a step in this direction,” the chief minister added.
Entire biodegradable waste generating at Ghazipur’s fish and poultry markets, which earlier used to be dumped at the Ghazipur landfill site, will now be utilised by the plant. The work to install the plant, costing Rs 4.2 crore, began a year ago.
Calling it a first-of-its-kind initiative, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said, “You cannot expect no waste in any inhabited area. But the government is choosing to use the waste to produce electricity instead of letting it be on the streets or dumping it on garbage mountains. This shows how the government is progressing through the use of technological and scientific advancements.” As Kejriwal himself is an IITian, projects with technological advancements are being implemented by Delhi government, Sisodia added.
Underlining that this waste management is also the responsibility of the municipal corporation, Sisodia pointed out Delhi government took it upon itself. “I hope that many such plants will be set up in all mandis across Delhi, and all of them will become zero-waste mandis soon.”
Environment minister Gopal Rai called it a move to make Delhi clean and a step to fight pollution. “We are in touch with the Centre to assist us in reaching an effective solution to curb polluting activities outside the periphery of the city,” Rai said.
Stressing that the AAP government in Delhi has been instrumental in fighting pollution through out the year, he said, “We have introduced a model that will enable us to produce energy and manure by recycling the waste collected from the city.”