Mumbai, Oct 13 Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday directed officials to set up a task force to expedite projects for producing compressed biogas (CBG) from waste, as part of efforts to make cities garbage-free.
Reviewing proposed projects at a meeting held in Mumbai, Fadnavis said CBG plants should be set up at suitable locations in accordance with the state’s CBG Policy.
He said project planning should take into account the volume of waste generated, land availability, suitability of technology and distance from gas pipelines.
Companies in the sector, oil companies and local bodies should work together to finalise the implementation process, he added.
The projects would help municipal corporations reduce expenditure on waste collection and support efforts to make cities garbage-free, the chief minister said.
Fadnavis suggested exploring the setting up of such plants in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), including areas under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar and Kalyan-Dombivli municipal corporations, as well as in the Hinjewadi and Chakan areas near Pune.
A presentation was made on a waste-to-biogas project implemented in Nagpur by representatives of Keva Green and shared information on the possibility of replicating the model elsewhere in Maharashtra.
The meeting discussed the experience of the Nagpur project, cluster-based plant development, waste segregation, land availability, connectivity to gas pipelines and the use of different technologies, according to a release.
Officials also discussed developing cluster-based models that could include neighbouring cities to process municipal waste. Segregating waste within cities and carrying out further processing at suitable locations outside urban areas could ease pressure on land in cities, they said.
(PTI News)
