The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) are joining hands to set up Asia's largest bio-gas plant in Mumbai. The upcoming plant will have the capacity to treat 1,000 tonnes of wet waste every day.

According to a report by The Indian Express, the proposed plant will recycle damp, organic, and degradable waste, which accounts for 3,500 tonnes of the 6,000 tonnes of solid waste generated daily in Mumbai. The plant will be able to treat nearly one-third of the daily wet waste generated in the city. It is intended to repurpose the waste for a useful purpose.

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As per an anonymous senior civic body official, quoted in the report, the BMC is responding to a proposal from the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The plant, which is expected to start operating within a year of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the BMC and MGL, will convert the segregated wet waste into compressed bio-gas (CBG).

The BMC will supply the segregated wet waste to the plant, which MGL will treat to produce gas and supply it back to the city. At present, the solid waste management (SWM) department of the BMC is operating five vehicles in each municipal ward to transport wet waste to scientific treatment centres. After the plant is operational, the quantity of waste recycled is expected to get a major boost.

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The plant's location will be decided from among three shortlisted land parcels in the eastern suburbs. The BMC will provide the land parcel, and MGL will bear the capital expenditure. The civic body and MGL will sign the MoU for constructing and operating the plant in the next few weeks.

This proposed plant is expected to be the largest biogas plant in Asia in terms of treatment capacity. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri inaugurated a CBG plant in the Sangrur district of Punjab in October 2022, which will produce 33 tonnes of gas daily by treating 300 tonnes of paddy straw.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)