The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has obtained clearances for a 40 MW power plant that would use municipal solid waste generated in the city as fuel.

The Corporation expects to use the 3,100 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste it generates everyday as fuel for the power plant, GHMC Special Commissioner Navin Mittal said on Thursday.

Ramky Enviro Engineers will set up the plant under public, private partnership mode at the Jawaharnagar dump yard in Kapra.

Addressing a conference on ‘Environmental Resource Conservation – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he highlighted the need to better manage waste and also treat water for recycling where possible.

He felt the Centre and the State Governments need to provide necessary funds to the municipal bodies to tackle solid waste and water pollution.

“Expecting the urban local bodies to generate their own funds through property tax and other methods without providing any portion of taxes collected does not happen anywhere in the world,” Mittal said.

Once the uniform Goods & Services Tax (GST) comes into being in the country, the Governments should think of providing one to 1.5 per cent of revenue to the municipal bodies towards meeting capital costs for sustainable development technology, he added.

A.K. Parida, Director-General of Environment Protection & Training Institute of India (EPTRI), said the challenge for the country and the industry was to ensure sustainable growth of eight to nine per cent.

Cities and not States help decide investments, he said. Therefore, it was necessary to tackle municipal waste in an efficient manner according it top priority. He advised the industry to strive for bringing in clean technologies.

Parida said the State plans to come out with climate change action plan.

rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

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