Going Green: Indian Railways Opens First Governmental Waste-To-Energy Plant In Bhubaneswar

In a major development towards the nation's march towards ensuring a greater reliance on cleaner fuels and energy for its needs, the Indian Railways has commissioned the country’s first governmental waste-to-energy plant in Bhubaneswar city's Mancheswar Carriage Repair workshop, reports Asian News International (ANI).

Inaugurated on 22 January, the plant with the capacity to process as much as 500 kilograms of waste per day has been constructed in a time-frame of just three months. It is the nation's fourth of its kind plant based on the patented technology called POLYCRACK.

The plant undertakes a heterogeneous process to convert multiple feedstocks into hydrocarbon liquid, fuels, gas, carbon and water. Further, it can process wastes of various kinds, including plastic, petroleum sludge, unsegregated municipal solid waste, automotive fluff and organic waste et cetera.

The completely closed-loop mechanism with which the plant has been built ensures zero emission of hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere. It has been constructed at a cost of Rs 1.79 crore and is estimated to generate an annual income of Rs 17.5 lakh with a maintenance cost of Rs 10.4 lakh for the Railways.