PANAJI
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday mooted a small combined heat and power facility for Goa to scientifically dispose Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) produced at the Saligao and other proposed solid waste management plants instead of transporting it to cement plants for disposal.
Currently the RDF is transported to four private sector cement plants in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh by the Goa Waste Management Corporation for disposal.
Parrikar said the RDF which primarily comprises non-recyclable domestic and industrial wastes is burnt at 1200 degrees centigrade because emission of toxins at higher temperatures is minimal.
He said, the State government does not pay the cement companies to dispose the waste but bears the cost of transporting it to the plants through the Goa Waste Management Corporation.
Parrikar said although talks were on with a couple of other cement companies, it
would be prudent for Goa to have its own combined heat and power plant, where RDF can be burnt and power is produced.
The chief minister was responding to a question posed by Curchorem MLA, Nilesh Cabral, during Question Hour. Cabral also wanted to know whether the government was looking at back-up alternatives to the cement plants in Karnataka since that State could at any time stop Goa’s RDF from entering its territory due to the animosity over the Mhadei dispute.
Parrikar disclosed that the government spent around Rs 2.63 crore on transportation of the RDF from the Saligao plant to the three cement plants in the three years since 2015.
