Meghalaya: Waste-to-energy plant inaugurated in Tura

Shillong: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma along with the Ambassador of South Korea to India Chang Jae-Bok, on Tuesday, inaugurated the pilot project for a Refuse Derived Fuel plant or waste-to-fuel plant in Tura, the district headquarter of West Garo Hills.

A first-of-its-kind project in the entire country is being set up by a Korean company in India. The plant, situated at the landfill site at Rongkhon Songital, is a collaboration between the Government of Meghalaya, Tura Municipal Board and Chamhana GW of South Korea.

The current project in Tura has been envisioned as a working-model demonstration to manage the daily incoming municipal garbage of Tura town and its adjoining areas.

Inaugurating the project, the Chief Minister said that the entire concept of turning waste into energy would completely redefine people’s perception of waste and garbage disposal.

“When I visited this site (landfill) I really wanted to do something and I didn’t know what and how. But I knew that we needed to reverse this entire process of dumping the garbage here to making this place green again and more importantly finding a way… a technology that could enable us to ensure that the future waste that we generate could be put to a lot of things,” the Chief Minister said.

Talking at length about the project, the chief minister informed that the project was conceptualised way back in 2019 but due to the pandemic it had to be put on hold.

The waste-to-energy plant will work by converting all waste, except recyclables like metals, glass wood and e-waste, construction waste, etc., into fuel briquettes. The fuel briquettes can then be used as a replacement for coal and charcoal.

On an optimistic note, the chief minister said that if the pilot project is successful, the government will expand and install similar waste conversion plants in other parts of the state.

Terming the project as a win-win for all, Ambassador of South Korea to India Chang Jae-Bok, who is on his maiden visit to Meghalaya, said that the pilot project is the start of many meaningful and mutually beneficial collaborations that Korea and India could have in the field of technology that has the potential to greatly enhance the quality of people’s lives.

“Our (Republic of Korea) Embassy in New Delhi will make our effort to further develop this kind of mutually beneficial projects and co-operation in the future,” he said.

Also read | Meghalaya begins converting waste to fuel