Pune: A proposal by PCMC to set up a 375 metric tonne waste-to-biogas plant at the Moshi garbage depot has run into trouble after opposition corporators said the project’s plans were prepared by the very same civic officials who were suspended for alleged negligence following the July 8 landfill collapse at the site, in which nine people died.“It’s not just the link with the civic officials,” said Shiv Sena corporator Sulbha Ubale. “The consultant who prepared the request for proposal (RFP) for the biogas plant is the same consultant who prepared the RFP for the waste-to-energy (WtE) project, which was struck by the collapse. It’s for these reasons we have opposed the project. We fear the same irregularities that led to the tragedy at the WtE plant may have crept into this project too,” she said.According to the tender for the proposed biogas plant, a private operator will run the facility for 15 years, producing nearly nine tonnes of biogas daily. The proposal is expected to come up for discussion in the Standing Committee next week.But NCP and Shiv Sena corporators alleged their review of the proposal showed it was also “financially unviable” as its public-private partnership (PPP) model would require PCMC to pay “tipping charges” nearly four to five times higher than those being paid for existing waste-processing facilities. Tipping fees is the charge levied by a waste-processing facility for accepting a given quantity of waste for disposal or processing.NCP corporator Sandip Waghere said PCMC currently pays around Rs 800 per tonne as tipping charge for its restaurant waste-to-biogas plant and Rs 504 per tonne for the waste-to-energy project. “The civic body is already collecting waste from across the city and delivering it to the processing site. The operator only has to process the waste. If one operator is paid Rs 500 or Rs 800 per tonne for the same work, why should the biogas plant operator receive Rs 3,611 per tonne?” Waghere asked.The corporators claimed the biogas project was rejected by previous municipal commissioners. “This very same proposal was placed before them too. One rejected it twice, while another suggested it be executed and operated by PCMC, instead of a PPP model,” Waghere said, adding that the proposed tipping fee of Rs 3,611 per tonne would require PCMC to pay the contractor about Rs 13.5 lakh a day or over Rs 50 crore annually.Corporators said the contractor operating the plant would also earn additional revenue from sale of biogas, estimated at around Rs 6.3 lakh per day or nearly Rs 22 crore annually, apart from receiving Rs 37 crore as viability gap funding (VGF) from the civic body.Alleging that these financial terms disproportionately favoured the private operator, the opposition corporators questioned whether adequate safeguards had been incorporated to protect PCMC’s interests.Abhishek Barne, chairman of PCMC’s Standing Committee, told TOI the proposal was not yet part of its discussion agenda. “But whenever it is placed before us, it will be discussed in detail. It will not be approved until all concerns are addressed, every doubt is clarified and the matter is thoroughly examined,” Barne said on Thursday.
