Pimpri Chinchwad commences ‘waste to biogas’ project

The Municipal Corporation of Pimpri Chinchwad has initiated a biogas project in Moshi as the city moves towards managing its waste efficiently. The new project is aimed at producing biogas from waste sourced from the hotels throughout the city.

This biogas project falls under the Swachh Bharat Yajana and focuses on adopting a scientific approach to manage food waste generated by hotels, restaurants, canteens, marriage halls, and similar establishments across Pimpri Chinchwad.

Officials from the municipality have outlined their plan to utilize hotel waste to generate biogas, which will then be converted into bio-CNG to power PCMC vehicles responsible for waste collection across various city areas.

Shekhar Singh, the municipal commissioner, mentioned that the waste-carrying vehicles of the corporation will be equipped with a specialized GPS tracking system. Presently, Pimpri Chinchwad generates approximately 35 to 38 tons of hotel waste daily. To address this, a biogas project with a capacity to process 50 tons of waste daily has been implemented, marking a significant stride towards achieving a zero-waste status for the city.

Currently, Pimpri Chinchwad produces around 500 tons of wet waste and 700 tons of dry waste, which are managed at the sole processing facility located in Moshi. The officials emphasized that this project will aid in mitigating the foul odour associated with wet waste. The inauguration of the project took place during the recent visit of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to the city, and it commenced operations as per reports.

Also, the municipal corporation intends to eventually power all waste transport vehicles within the city using fuel derived from this plant.

Recently, Mumbai Metro (MMRC) had awarded a contract for the development of a 1.5-TPD biomethanation or biogas plant to convert tonnes of municipal organic wet waste into electricity daily.