Solid waste being transported to Bhuasuni from the transit transport station near Sainik School in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 30: The solid waste treatment facility at Bhuasuni on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar is likely to start functioning from January.

The regional facility, to be built at an investment of around Rs 46 crore, will have the capacity to treat 700 metric tonnes of solid waste a day.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received four proposals for the bid and all the formalities are expected to be completed by December.

“We hope that the selected firm will start its work by January. The civic body has floated the tender for which technical expertise was provided by the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation, Credit Rating and Information Services of India Limited and World Bank to shortlist the applicants and prepare the bid documents. The facility will handle solid waste not only from the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, but also the proposed Greater Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Urban Complex consisting of Chowdwar and Khurda-Jatni corridor,’’ said BMC commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev.

The city generates more than 440 metric tonnes of solid waste each day and Cuttack generates around 230.

There was a proposal to use the bio-degradable waste to generate energy so that the energy needed for running the set-up could be arranged partly or totally from the waste.

However, this depends on the economic viability of the model, sources in the BMC said.

“If the model is not found economically viable, then the biodegradable wastes can be made to undergo composting so that the green manure produced from the facility could be used commercially for additional income generation,” said a senior official.

In January, the Orissa High Court asked the BMC city health officer to be present in person in the court on March 4 regarding the progress of this solid waste management project.

The proposed project, which would be run in public-private partnership mode, would ensure improved collection and transportation system. The operator and the municipal corporation could benefit from the sale of recyclable wastes generated at the transit transportation stations and the compost generated from the processing plant.

Sources said BMC covers 135sqkm over 60 wards with a population of around 10 lakh including 2,36,231 households. From the 440 tonne of wastes, the components are: domestic 252.39, institutional 24.46, commercial 139.22, street sweeping 2.2, construction demolition debris 17.42 and bio-medical wastes 4.31.

From this, 325.41 tonne is bio-degradable and 90.66 is non-bio-degradable waste.