Aafrin Kidwai 
The Municipal Corporation of Amritsar (MCA) will bioremediate an estimated 10 lakh metric tonne of legacy waste at Bhagtanwala to reclaim the land, and set up a waste to energy plant to be built and operated by Averda. The project is likely to be completed in two years.
Averda began its Amritsar operations around mid-2020. Mr Amit Bajpai, Director – India, Averda said, “Averda has started biomining and so far 38,000 metric tonnes of legacy waste has been biomined at the Bhagtanwala site. With this speed we shall be able to operationalise the waste to energy plant in about two years. This plant will extinguish an estimated 650 tonnes of fresh waste every day,” This new plant will consume the entire waste generated in the city and the nearby local urban bodies.
Averda also says it has added 50 additional vehicles for door-to-door waste collection. All vehicles have dual compartments for collection of wet waste and dry waste separately and fitted with GPS to enable monitoring of the operations.
Along with stepping up collection activities, MCA has also been focussing on behaviour change communication. MCA has asked Averda to carry out Information, Education and Communication activities, for which the company has partnered with NGOs. “We have been spearheading awareness campaigns including door-to-door outreach urging citizens for segregating wet and dry waste at source, organizing programs in market complexes to sensitise shopkeepers, educate vendors in fruit and vegetable markets and training of garbage collection boys, among others,” added Bajpai.
“This has resulted in substantial awareness. Students of all hues are actively participating and so are citizens from all strata of society. Shopkeepers are themselves installing bins and so on,” informed an MCA official.
