MoHUA Signs MoU to Build Waste to Wealth Facilities in Million Plus Cities

Under the GOBARdhan scheme for promoting circular economy, 500 new Waste to Wealth plants will be established in the 'Green Growth' segment.  At a total investment of Rs 10,000 Cr, these will include 200 compressed biogas plants, 75 in urban areas, and 300 community or cluster-based plants.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Engineers India Limited to develop Waste to Energy and bio-methanation projects in cities with populations of one million or more as part of the 'Green Growth' agenda. Roopa Mishra, Joint Secretary, SBM-U & Mission Director, MoHUA, and R.K. Rathi, Executive Director, EIL signed the MoU in the presence of Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA, and Vartika Shukla, C&MD, EIL.

The emphasis on sustainable solid waste management has been boosted by the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0, with the overall goal of creating garbage-free cities. With this goal in mind, MoHUA has decided to establish large-scale solid waste processing facilities in cities with populations of one million or more. Lucknow, Kanpur, Bareilly, Nasik, Thane, Nagpur, Gwalior, Chennai, Madurai, and Coimbatore are just a few of the 59 million cities in India. In these million-plus cities, bio-methanation plants have been proposed for the management of the organic/wet fraction of municipal solid waste.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Asia's largest municipal solid waste-based GOBARdhan plant in Indore in February 2022, with the goal of producing 19,000 kg bio-CNG gas. The bio-methanation plants linked to the GOBARdhan and SATAT schemes will produce Bio-CNG as a renewable energy under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0.

Waste to Energy and bio-methanation projects will incorporate the concept of circularity in waste management by producing green energy from municipal solid waste's dry and wet waste components. Byproducts such as electricity and Bio-CNG will also contribute to the long-term viability of waste management operations.

EIL will assist and support the million plus cities in developing such projects for larger quantities of waste that incorporate circularity in waste management. In the first phase, 25 million or more cities will be chosen for the development of large-scale process plants. The success of these projects will be critical because they will be conceptualized and executed as models for future projects.

Thus, EIL's collaboration in providing preliminary technical assessment and Transaction Advisory services will have a significant impact. EIL will also assist ULBs in the monitoring of these PPP projects during the construction phase and in obtaining statutory approvals. The initiative will result in an increase in processing capacity of 15,000 TPD for Bio-Methanation and 10,000 TPD for Waste to Energy.