The Pollachi municipality will lead the way when it comes to generating electricity from food and vegetable waste. The bio-mechanisation plant which was proposed in 2013 is now complete. The municipality received Rs. 81 lakh funding from the state government to complete this project.
The plant is capable of processing 5 tonnes of waste per day. The waste from the municipality will be transported to the plant and it will be converted to electricity. It has taken 6 months to complete this plant and it will be fully functional after July 15, 2016.
Trial runs are being run right now and once it is successful, 5 tonnes of waste will be treated and the resulting biogas will be used to generate electricity, says Pollachi Municipality Chairman V Krishnakumar.
He said the electricity would be supplied to the vegetable market and also to the commercial market that is being constructed behind the vegetable market. "We are setting up a commercial market with wholesale and retail shops at a cost of 6 crore behind the vegetable market.
Once that construction is completed, we might supply electricity to the shops that is generated from the plant," he said. The plant is located on the Gandhi Market road near the vegetable market.
Pollachi municipal officials said that such plants had been proposed all over the state and Pollachi had completed the construction first. "We have been processing the waste at the compost yard and have been segregating the residential waste as well. We hope that after a few months, organic waste from the residences can also be used for the plant," said an official.
On Sunday an inspection at the plant was held and the officials said that the trial run was successful. "Currently it is not running in full capacity but the waste is being processed successfully. We will also calculate the amount of electricity that the plant will generate," said an official.