Moving further towards generation of clean and affordable energy from waste, the Punjab Government has decided to build a 7MW waste to energy plant, over an area of 50 acres at Simgauli in Mohali district, under the Build Own Operate (BOO) model.Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday gave the go-ahead for the project, to be completed within two years as part of GMADA-Patiala Municipal Solid Waste cluster. The project would generate power from 600 tonnes per day (TPD) waste collected from Mohali and Patiala. Chairing a meeting here at his official residence, Captain Amarinder also gave approval to the Local Government Departmen for an MoU between the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Municipal Corporation Mohali, being the nodal agency, for the execution of the project.The Chief Minister said that this unique project would contribute significantly to the implementation of the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) and also the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Though Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), which had always posed a major challenge to urban local bodies, could now be effectively used as a source of renewable energy, yet it had not been harnessed systematically on a significant scale, he pointed out, hoping that the project would pave the way for more such initiatives. The meeting was informed that, as per an estimate, MSW of Punjab state could support waste to energy plant of approximately 50 MW.
During the meeting, General Manager, Waste to Energy, NTPC, Amit Kulshreshtha apprised the Chief Minister that the new state-of-the-art plant, complying with the latest environmental, norms would be installed as a pilot project in the state. He said that the NTPC had already initiated such projects at Kawas in Surat (Gujarat), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Indore and East Delhi Municipal Corporation.PSPCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director B.S. Sran revealed that the Powercom would sign a power purchase agreement with the NTPC after the implementation agreement is signed by the Local Government department, as per the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s regulations for determination of tariff of Renewable Energy Sources, adopted by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission Project Specific Tariff for Waste to Energy.Local Government Minister Brahm Mohindra, ACS Local Government Sanjay Kumar, Principal Secretary Finance Anirudh Tiwari, Principal Secretary Water Resources A. Venu Prasad, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Tejveer Singh were present at the meeting, along with Secretary Local Government Ajoy Sharma, Deputy Commissioner Mohali Girish Dayalan, Additional Principal Secretary to CM Jatinder Jorwal, Mayor Patiala Sanjeev Sharma, Commissioner Municipal Corporation Mohali Kamal Kumar Garg, Commissioner Municipal Corporation Patiala Poonamdeep Kaur Additional Secretary Water Supply and Sanitation Mohammad Ishfaq and GM PMIDC VP Singh.