PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has got four private players ready to convert decommissioned biogas plants into new technology to process wet garbage. The PMC has selected two plants in the first phase on an experimental basis. A private company has already chosen the Wadgaon budruk (Sinhagad road) biogas plant to use new technology to process 40 tonne of wet garbage per day without charging any tipping fee. And now, the PMC has received response from four private players for the Sarasbaug biogas plant.

Sanket Jadhav, junior engineer of the solid waste department, said, “Earlier, we were using small composting, bio-CNG plants to process garbage. But in the current scenario, these technologies have become outdated. We have to now use new technology to process garbage. We have selected two old biogas plants on an experimental basis to be handed over to private players to run on new technology. The Wadgaon (Sinhagad road) plant has already started running on new technology that will process wet garbage and convert into biomass briquettes.”

“In the second plant of Sarasbaug, we have received response from four private players that are ready to run it with new technology. In the coming three to four days, the companies will present to the PMC. Thereafter, we will discuss and take the final decision,” Jadhav said.

Of the total 25 biogas plants, the Wadgaon plant is spread across 10,000 square feet of land. The plant was processing 10 tonne per day of wet garbage however it stopped working in September 2019 after suffering damage due to heavy rain. The PMC tried to repair it but it was unable to process an adequate amount of garbage. Also, the plant was about to become non-viable in June 2020.

Meanwhile, Pune city-based garbage processing company, Mithras Green Technologies, approached the solid waste department and evinced interest in running the plant with new technology without taking any tipping fee from the PMC. The corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and handed over the plant to the company which agreed to set up the infrastructure and run the plant on its own.

Meanwhile, PMC has decided to decommission 12 out of the total 25 biogas plants in a phased manner in the coming days. The PMC wants to hand over the biogas plants to private players on a design-build-finance-operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.