Total wastage

March 30: A Comptroller and Auditor-General report, submitted in the Assam Assembly today, has found several faults in the implementation of the city’s solid waste management project.

The project is being implemented by the state government in public-private partnership (PPP) mode with Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited — a Hyderabad-based private company — as the private partners.

The report of the CAG (civil) for the fiscal 2010-11 has stated that the project was ill conceived from the very beginning because of inherent defects in selection of technical consultant, preparation of two detailed project reports — one of which is yet to be approved by the Centre — site selection and selection of the private partner.

“The detailed project report, approved by the fund sanctioning authority, which is the Union ministry of urban development, was not adopted. A concession agreement based on detailed project report-II was signed by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and Guwahati Waste Management Company Private Limited, which is a joint venture of the state government and Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited,” the report said.

The new detailed project report forced the Centre to wash its hands off the project.

“Resultantly, the Centre stopped funding after initial disbursement. The private developer — Ramky Enviro Engineers — was selected on a single bid. Public interest was not safeguarded while preparing the concession agreement,” the report said.

According to the CAG, selection of the project site close to a wetland, Deepor Beel, was done violating the Municipal Solid Waste Rules, 2000, and Wetland Rules 2010, putting the future of the project in jeopardy.

“There were financial irregularities and the user charges/tipping charges paid to the developer were not based on any measurable parameters and, therefore, non-transparent. Therefore, the intended objective to reduce expenditure on solid waste management could not be achieved,” the report said.

“It further said there was no basic improvement in the service provided compared to that which existed before the project period. The present system had so far failed to protect the environment and the wetland from leachate contamination,” the report said.

“The power plant stipulated to be set up by July 2010 was not yet started. Instead of 200 tonnes per day capacity compost plant, a meagre five tonnes per day compost was produced on a trial basis,” the CAG report observed.

“Thus, the objective of improving health and hygiene through scientific collection and transportation with provision for recycling was not achieved under PPP arrangement,” it said.

According to the report, the waste to energy technology was not considered feasible in the detailed project report approved by the Centre but it was later included in the unapproved detailed project report-II.

The CAG report also stated that an excess grant of Rs 7.99 crore was released to the developer beyond the norms of the agreement.