UNIDO approves Rs 10 crore funding for various projects in Mysuru

MYSURU: United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has approved a funding of Rs 10 crore for the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) for the implementation of waste management projects to curb pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The projects to curb the pollution level in the city will be implemented under the UNIDO’s Sustainable Cities Integrated Approach Pilot in India (SCIAP).

Recently a team of senior officials from UNIDO visited the city and looked at the proposed projects by MCC to reduce greenhouse gas emission, and has given their approval for project funding.

Under the SCIAP, the MCC will remodel the existing compost plant at Vidyaranyapuram, install a waste-to-energy plant with a capacity of 300 tonnes per day at Rayanakere, and a small-scale bio-gas plant for disposing of the market waste.

Dr G Nagaraju, Health Officer, MCC, said that the UNIDO team had sought information on various projects of the MCC which are in line with the objectives of SCIAP to reduce greenhouse gas emission.

Under the SCIAP, Mysuru is among the five selected cities for project implementation, other cities are Jaipur, Bhopal, Vijayawada, and Guntur. The five cities were selected based on the criteria linked to levels of urban development, city service delivery challenges, size and geographic spread etc. This is part of UNIDO’s global project to fund 38 cities in different countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr Nagaraju said that the machinery for handling the wastes will be procured by the UNIDO based on the MCC’s specification and the project could get started within a month or two.

The existing machinery used at sewage farm in Vidyaranyapuram was procured more than 20 years ago with funding taken from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The estimates of MCC shows that the city generates about 450 tonnes of waste daily of which 200 tonnes of waste is converted to manure at the sewage farm in Vidyaranyapuram. If the waste is left untreated the waste will generate methane gas which is harmful for nearby population. To curb it, the plant will be established at a cost of Rs 103 crore.

Dr Nagaraju said, “The MCC has in place plans and machinery to handle about 450 tonnes of waste daily while the legacy waste will be cleared over the next 12 months for which the tendering process has been completed. There is a legacy waste of nearly 2 lakh tonnes accumulated in the city and once removed, Mysuru will be among the very few cities in the country to have a robust waste management system in place.”

The officials of MCC said that the existing projects are in tune with the parameters set under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and would help Mysuru shore up its overall health and cleanliness index.