MARGAO
The fate of the 5TPD biomethanation plant treating Margao Municipal Council’s wet waste at the SGPDA retail market hangs in balance.
For, Ms Urja Bio System Pvt Ltd, the firm operating the 5TPD plant, has dashed off a letter to the Margao Municipal Council that they are withdrawing the employees manning the plant on grounds that the plant has not received segregated waste at the site for treatment for the last three months.
Urja has told the Margao civic body to depute a security guard at the biomethanation plant as a precautionary measure since the firm planned to withdraw its employees on March 10.
Urja’s decision assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) had last month issued to the Margao Municipal Council the consent to operate the plant. The move further assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that the PWD had finally accorded its nod to the Margao Municipal Council to dispose of the digested slurry generated at the biomethanation plant at the PWD Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) at Sirvodem, Margao.
Questions are also being raised in the corridors of the Margao Municipal Council whether Urja has taken the decision to withdraw its employees from the plant after the GSPCB while giving the consent to operate the plant had laid down a condition that the plant should discontinue its operations after six months.
In fact, though the firm had spruced up the biomethanation plant after the GSPCB had raised a host of questions over its upkeep and maintenance, the MMC is apparently not keen to run the plant on a day-to-day basis with the daily wet waste generated in the commercial capital, around 30 tonnes per day, being transported to the Cacora waste treatment plant for disposal.
Sources in the MMC in private say that the civic body is content in keeping the plant to its operational readiness to meet future exigencies. The MMC had roped in Urja Bio System in 2020 for the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the 5TPD biomethanation plant with power generation, with operation and maintenance for five years at the SGPDA fish market.
