Chennai civic body wants to raise revenue via 6 new CNG plants

The Greater Chennai Municipal Corporation (GCMC) plans to earn revenue by recycling dry and wet waste at its Chetpet Bio CNG facility and selling manure. The civic body reportedly receives a royalty of Rs 1.5 for every kg of biogas produced. Biogas is produced at a rate of about 4,000 kg per day. This will now be expanded to six locations, including Madhavaram, Sholinganallur, and Koyambedu.

About 600 tonnes of wet waste, kitchen and vegetable waste is collected and processed in the 208 micro-composting centres daily. Of this, about 10% is the weight of manure from the waste. The MC’s aim is to sell all 50 tonnes daily to farmers and households. Residents are being taught how to make terrace gardens, and the manure is being used for parks.

In a meeting on waste recycling this week, Mayor R Priya said the corporation had sold 15,534 kg of manure generated at its composting centres for Rs 1,38,080 in April. This month, the corporation raised further Rs 17,82,210 by selling 2,79,832 kg of dry garbage. Officials were told to expand trash recycling operations as a potential source of cash in order to minimise garbage at landfills, reports The Times of India.