The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will soon seek the help of Essel Group, which will make use of Israeli technology to process municipal solid waste in the City.

The firm will lift garbage from collection centres across the City, take it to Kanahalli, where the waste will be processed with the technology and converted into electricity and manure.

Two years ago, the Palike had rejected this proposal with Essel Group as it wanted to pay a tipping charge of Rs 260 per tonne but the firm had demanded Rs 275. Unhappy with the deal, the Palike called off the project, but ironically, it has now agreed to pay Rs 276 per tonne of waste — a rupee more than what the firm had quoted earlier.

“The firm had promised to process garbage; all it required was garbage and a place to set up a plant. There was no financial burden on the BBMP. But unfortunately, the project was not taken up on flimsy grounds,” said S Harish, former deputy mayor who had visited Israel to learn about waste processing.

He said the firm was alloted 19 acres of land at Kanahalli en route to Magadi, where it had planned to set up a Rs 300-crore plant to process 750 metric tonnes of waste. “Some engineers with vested interests had bulldozed this project. If not, the garbage problem would have been solved long ago and the City would have also benefited with the electricity supply,” said Harish.

Trip to Israel

Upon an invitation from the Israeli embassy, a six-member delegation headed by Jayanagar MLA B N Vijay Kumar, travelled to the West Asian nation to study garbage processing and find a solution to Bangalore’s garbage problem. Other members of the delegation included former mayor S K Nataraj, present Mayor Katte Satyanarayana, who was then a corporator, former deputy mayor S Harish, JD(S) corporator Padmanabha Reddy and Congress corporator K Gunashekar.

The six-day tour included a visit to a waste processing site in Tel Aviv. As per the waste processing model, it was observed that the garbage was let into water and washed to remove stench, while plastics and other papers were separated as the garbage was carried on conveyor belts to generate electricity. The hard materials like soil, glass pieces and metals were separated manually. The garbage was later sent for methanisation and compost making.

Just 5 units would suffice

The BBMP planned to introduce five units of solid waste management in the City, based on this model.

“Setting up five such plants would have solved the garbage menace and the contractor lobby too. Even the accumulated waste at both Mandur and Mavallipura could have been processed,” said Harish.

Only 10 per cent of the waste would be left as inert and sent to landfill sites.