Indore: A plan has been made to run about 400 city buses (urban public transport vehicles) every day from the eco-friendly fuel made in the Bio-CNG plant, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to inaugurate in Indore, the cleanest city of the country on February 19. Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) officials, who were preparing for the inauguration ceremony to be held in the online presence of the Prime Minister, gave this information on Wednesday.
The 15-acre bio-CNG plant at IMC’s Devguradiya Trenching Ground has been set up under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with an investment of around Rs 150 crore from a private company, officials said.
The plant is touted by IMC as the largest bio-CNG unit of its kind in South Asia. He said that this plant can make about 19,000 kg of Bio-CNG every day from 550 tonnes of wet waste (waste of fruits and vegetables and raw meat, leftover or stale food, green leaves of plants, fresh flower waste etc.) A part of this fuel will be used in 400 city buses in the city.
Officials said that these buses are currently running on diesel and these vehicles will be converted into bio-CNG powered buses in a phased manner. He informed that 55 Bio-CNG buses will be run in the city during the first phase this month.
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According to officials, no capital has been invested in the bio-CNG plant from the IMC’s coffers, but instead of providing wet waste to it, a premium of Rs 2.5 crore will be provided to the urban body every year by a private company. Quoting the agreement, officials said that the price of bio-CNG sold by the private company from the plant to the urban body would be kept at Rs 5 per kg less than the prevailing market rate of normal CNG.
On an average, 700 tonnes of wet waste and 400 tonnes of dry waste is generated every day in Indore, with a population of about 35 lakh, and separate facilities for safe disposal of both types of waste have been developed, officials said. According to officials, Indore’s cleanliness model is based on the “3R’s” (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) formula, due to which the city has remained at the top of the cleanliness survey of the central government in the country for five consecutive years. (agency)