Latest news with #SusBDe
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Waste to biogas plant to start operations by Nov
Nagpur: Netherlands-based Sustainable Business Development (SusBDe) assured chief minister Devendra Fadnavis that its long-pending waste-to-biogas plant at Bhandewadi will begin producing compressed biogas from November 15, 2025. The assurance was given during the CM's visit to the site on Saturday evening, where he reviewed the delayed project and reiterated the final deadline for full commissioning as November 30. Ahead of the visit, Nagpur municipal commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari convened a review meeting with SusBDe and key civic officials. The ambitious project aims to scientifically process Nagpur's municipal solid waste and convert it into compressed biogas (CBG). However, the initiative missed multiple deadlines since its original commissioning target of November 2024. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) extended the deadline first to March 2025, and then to November 2025, citing delays in site development and equipment procurement. Fadnavis was accompanied by east Nagpur MLA Krishna Khopde, former corporator Narendra Borkar, commissioner Chaudhari, additional municipal commissioner Vasumana Pant, and superintending engineer (public health engineering) Shweta Banerjee, SusBDe representatives Vrinda Thakur, Sanjay Gadre, Vinod Tandon among others were present. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 'Swing is King': Mr. Hemant's Strategy Finally Explained in Free Session TradeWise Learn More Undo Currently, SusBDe is handling only 300 metric tonnes (MT) of waste per day using a temporary 9-acre setup, although the plant is designed to process significantly higher volumes. Operations are running in three shifts round-the-clock, yet civic officials remain dissatisfied with the pace of work. In response to earlier concerns raised by the municipal commissioner, SusBDe has now committed to ramping up operations to 800 MT per day starting June 2025, adding 500 MT of fresh waste to its daily intake. During the review, SusBDe representatives assured Fadnavis that civil construction would continue uninterrupted during the upcoming monsoon season, MLA Khopde told TOI. To prevent rain-related disruptions, the company is currently developing internal access roads within the 30-acre plot to ensure smooth logistics despite muddy site conditions. "Furthermore, the company announced that it is targeting November 15 to begin full-fledged biogas production from waste, ahead of the official November-end deadline," the east Nagpur MLA said. This timeline is contingent on the arrival and installation of key machinery from Europe, which is expected by August, followed by a three-month testing and commissioning phase. The biogas plant is being developed in partnership with Waste to Technology (WTT) and is projected to generate 27 million cubic metres of compressed biogas annually using both legacy and fresh municipal waste. SusBDe is setting up the project at its own expense without charging any tipping fee from the NMC. The project will process municipal waste to produce by-products such as biogas, organic compost, and RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel), and the rights to sell these by-products have been granted to it. This is a prestigious and ambitious project for Nagpur and is the only one of its kind in India based on Dry Fermentation Technology.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- General
- Time of India
Waste Segregated In City Only To Be Dumped At Same Spot In Bhandewadi
Nagpur: Bhandewadi dumping yard , already under scrutiny for unchecked dumping practices, has now turned into a firetrap, exposing gaping flaws in the city's waste management system. Despite collecting over Rs14.15 crore in fines from private agencies since 2019, only 5% of this amount was on account of dumping mixed waste — an oversight that continues to nullify years of segregation efforts. Unchecked mixing of dry and wet garbage at the landfill not only defeats the purpose of door-to-door segregation but also led to the massive fire that broke out on April 19, with fire crews still battling the flames days later. Currently, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), through private contractors AG Enviro and BVG India, collects and transports around 1,350 metric tonnes of garbage daily to the Bhandewadi site. Of this, about 60-70% is said to be segregated at source — collected as dry and wet waste separately. However, investigations by TOI revealed that both segregated and mixed waste are ultimately dumped together at the landfill, making the segregation effort meaningless. Shockingly, there is no mechanism in place to check what kind of waste is being transported or dumped at the landfill. "No vehicle is stopped or checked at the dumping yard, whether carrying mixed or segregated waste," admitted a senior official from NMC's solid waste management department. Interestingly, NMC continues to penalise contractors for failing to collect segregated waste, while taking little to no action at the final dumping site. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Ready to Live in 2, 3 & 4 BHK from ₹3.60 Cr* in Sec 22 Ambience Creacions, Gurugram Learn More Undo On the other hand, NMC has been spending Rs780 per metric tonne on Bhandewadi legacy waste bioremediation (treatment of waste using microorganisms such as bacteria that break down undesirable substances). Over the last few years, NMC claims to have treated 16 lakh metric tonnes, freeing up 20 acres of land where a waste-to-biogas plant by Netherlands-based Sustainable Business Development (SusBDe) is now under construction. However, an estimated 13 lakh metric tonnes of untreated legacy waste still remain. Continued dumping of fresh mixed garbage on this site is severely hampering bioremediation work. The SusBDe plant was to be completed within 18 months of the MoU signed in June 2023, but the deadline has already been extended to November 2025. Municipal commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari acknowledged the issue stating that mixed garbage continues to be dumped and the situation would improve only after the plant becomes fully operational. Recent fire at the landfill has highlighted risks of mixing biodegradable and inflammable materials. The blaze, which broke out on April 19, has required continuous deployment of eight fire tenders with 24 firefighters working in shifts to contain it. Officials say the fire could have been avoided if NMC had enforced segregation norms more strictly since outsourcing garbage collection to private firms in 2009. Environmental activists and civic experts have long warned that poor enforcement and lax monitoring at Bhandewadi could lead to a disaster. The fire, they say, is just the latest in a series of warning signs ignored by the city's administration.
