Bhubaneswar, July 13: The municipal corporation has decided to adopt the Jabalpur model to set up its ambitious waste-to-energy plant at the troubled Bhuasuni dump yard.

The waste-to-energy plant in the Madhya Pradesh city operates following European standards and processes nearly 2.19 lakh tonnes of municipal waste every year. It generates nearly 11.5MW energy, which is equivalent to powering 18,000 households.

The private partner of the civic body, which is executing the project, said they would replicate in Bhubaneswar the waste-to-energy plant that they have built in Jabalpur. The generated electricity would be sold to Gridco at Rs 6.70 per unit.

Project in-charge Prashant Majumdar said Bhubaneswar and Cuttack were jointly generating close to 600 tonnes of garbage every day - 2.16 lakh tonnes annually - and this was enough to generate 11.5MW electricity.

He said generally, one tonne of solid waste emitted two tonnes of carbon dioxide and the plant in Jabalpur resulted in an overall reduction of 4.38 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. "We have recently got the golden peacock award for the second consecutive year from the power, coal and renewable energy ministry for the Jabalpur plant," said Majumdar.

In order to make the deal more transparent, the civic body has decided to appoint a third party consultant that will look after and assist the private partner in executing the waste-to-energy plant. Sources said the municipal corporation had appointed a Netherlands-based firm for the job.

Environmental engineer of the firm, A.K. Pal said the Dutch firm's job was to check and give clearance to the various drawings and other architectural components, including the aspects related to environment. "Our job is to ensure that the private partner of the civic body is executing the project in a transparent manner," said Pal.

The project will cost Rs 252 crore of which 50 per cent will be borne by the private partner and 25 per cent each will be borne by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Cuttack Municipal Corporation. The dumping yard at Bhuasuni is the where solid waste of both the cities are dumped.

However, the authorities will have a tough task ahead in executing the project because Daruthenga village residents are still protesting against the it. Bhubaneswar mayor Ananta Narayan Jena told The Telegraph that the chief secretary would meet with the villagers this week and come up with a long-term solution to the problem.

The residents of Daruthenga have been protesting against the project since March. They had made complaints to the pollution control board and also the Prime Minister regarding this. They had locked the dump yard and also had a tussle with the police recently during a protest.

"We had a number of meetings with the agitating villagers in the past, but had failed to come up with any solution. However, we are hopeful of this meeting that the chief secretary will attend. The meeting will be held this week. The date will be fixed shortly and the villagers will be called," said Jena.