Jammu and Kashmir government officials have been “sitting” on the power purchase agreement with a private company which is keen to produce green power from the waste dumping site Achan on the outskirts of Srinagar. Due to the delay, the company cannot go ahead with its ambitious project to generate electricity from the different towns of the state by using solid waste.
Informed sources told this newspaper that the private company has been actively pursuing the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) for an early agreement to establish the first-ever green power plant to be generated from the waste.
“We have not only applied for Srinagar, but we are ready to go to all the districts of J&K to generate green power from dumping sites,” one of the officers with the private company told this correspondent.
While the private company claimed that 5 to 8.5MW energy can be produced from the Achan dumping site, SMC officials said that it will produce only 5 MW of green power. The power plant will not only manage the solid waste, it will also help to segregate the waste into bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable categories.
“We will install latest machines for segregation and will start work the day government signs the power purchase agreement with us,” said the official of the private company. He claimed that they have written to the government that they will complete the power plant within 18 months. Senior SMC officials said the power purchase agreement would be signed within days and the plant will be constructed in PPP mode utilising bio-mass dumped at the site to generate electricity.
The locals of Achan area have expressed concern over the delay in constructing the plant. On an average, 555 tonne of solid waste is dumped at Achan every day. Post the 2014 floods, 1,500 to 2,000 tonne of solid waste was being dumped every day. If the government allows the company to move into other towns, it can generate not less than 30 MW of electricity in Kashmir. “We have selected a private company for generation of green power through a proper tendering process and it is now at the final stage,” said a senior SMC official.
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