Chief Minister of Manipur N. Biren virtually inaugurated virtually the Waste to Energy Plant developed under MAHUD Department at Lamdeng, Imphal at a formal function held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat today. The Plant was developed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model with a Tripartite Agreement signed amongst MAHUD, MSPDCL and Innovative Eco-Care Pvt Ltd. and Thermotech System Ltd (IEC-TSL).

Addressing the media, Biren Singh said that the project, which is the first of its kind, was a long-awaited project as Solid Waste Management had been one of the major environmental concerns in the State. He congratulated the Department and Company officials for making the important project functional and also expressed thankfulness to the locals of Lamdeng for giving cooperation in the completion of the project. He further added the problem of disposing solid waste would be eased a little as the project would consume 100 tones of solid waste daily.

The Chief Minister appealed to the people of the State not to throw garbage and waste into rivers and ponds but to properly put it inside the dustbins installed in their localities so that the wastes could be timely collected by the concerned authorities. He also informed that the Government had been taking care of the localities near the project like constructing proper fencing to prevent them from any possible effect.

He further informed that the Institute of Bioresources & Sustainable Development had tested and scientifically proved that the phumdi biomass of Loktak Lake could produce ethanol oil.  The State Government had also informed the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari about the matter and the latter had responded that the Praj Industries Ltd in Pune could guide in going ahead with the plan to produce ethanol oil from Phumdi biomass. This would be helpful in generating large revenue for the State, he added.

Expressing concern on the scarcity of tap water supply in many areas of Greater Imphal due to significant drop in the water level of Singda, he appealed to the locals of Kangchup and Singda to refrain from cutting down trees which had caused depletion of water level. He sought cooperation and support to plant more trees and also preserve and save the existing plantation around the area for a better future.

It may be mentioned that the Waste to Energy Project was designed to enable the conversion of waste to energy and reduce significantly the amount of waste going to the landfill. The plant which is developed with an estimated cost of around 29.5 crore Rupees will have a capacity of 1 Megawatt-hour in the first phase and would be increased to 2 Megawatt-hour in the second phase.