Excel to set up waste treatment plants

Excel to set up waste treatment plants
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, AUG 24: The new plants nearing completion are at Shillong for the Municipal Board and would be operated on turnkey basis through franchisees, a 100 tonne plant at Simla to be funded by a Norwegian Agency, a 300 tonne plant at Chandigarh for a private entrepreneur and a 300 tonnes capacity unit at Jallandar.

Another 200 tonne capacity solid waste composing plant for the Mysore City Corporation, which is being built on turnkey basis will be built and operated by Excel through a local enterprise. It is funded by Asian Development Bank. The total cost of all these plants would be in the tune of Rs 24 crore.

Earlier, the company commissioned a 300 tonne plant at Thiruvananthapuram on a Build-Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis which was completed in a record period of five months, said K S V Nair, General Manager of Excel Industries.

On the increased cost of the plants, Nair said the cost of the plants appears to be high as 50 per cent of the cost is spent on environment protection. ``If the government comes forward to give subsidy for environment protection and also provide basic infrastructure facilities for setting up of the plants then the end product would be cheaper and profitable and this would encourage more private entrepreneurs to set up such plants,'' he said.

Mohan Jawdekar, General Manager of Excel Industries, said the waste generated in 100 Indian cities is to the tune of 80,000 tonne with Mumbai and Delhi each generating close to 6000 tonne. The `Excel Process' developed indigenously to convert organic municipal, farm waste into organic manures through the action of various microbes.