Astonfield project hits land hurdle
Investment of Rs 600 crore in limbo for want of 30 acres
West Bengal might just lose the Rs 600 crore Astonfield waste-to-energy project if Kolkata Municipal Corporation fails to handover the 30 acres of land in Dhapa to Astonfield Renewable Resources by October this year.
Astonfield Renewable Resources Limited (ARRL), the pioneer in renewable energy projects, planned to set up a 54 megawatt (Mw) waste-to-energy plant in Dhapa, over an an area of 30 acres out of a total site area or 186 hectares there.
ARRL was one of the seven applicants to get technical clearance two years back. Two years have passed since then but the company is yet to get possession of the land and start the project work.
Sourabh Sen, co-chairman & director, Astonfield Management Inc, an Astonfield group company, said, “We have set a deadline of October. We hope to get possession of land by that time. If not, we would have to pull out. There are two other states who have evinced interests for the project.” Veolia, the US-based technology partner for the project, has asked ARRL to shelve the project. ARRL has already invested close to Rs 14 crore, informed Sen.
Sen has taken up the issue with KMC and government officials but failed to make a breaktrough for the last two years. He is expected to meet Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee early next week in order to seek some help.
The plant is estimated to treat 4200 tonnes of waste per day, slighlty higher than the total waste collection in the city which is around 3265 tonnes per day.
At present, there are two such waste-to-energy projects in the country, a 37 Mw plant in Mumbai and a 14 Mw plant in Delhi.
In a parallel development, ARRL has recently entered into a 60:40 joint venture with AREVA Renewables. “We had a technical partnership for the last two years. For the first time, we are coming into a jv to develop 100 Mw of biomass power plant across India in a phased manner,” said Sen.
The approximate investment would be to the tune of Rs 550 -600 crore, with Astonfield contributing 60 per cent and Areva 40 per cent.The first of this 100 Mw biomass project will come up in Gangarampur in North Bengal.
The company has around 26 acres of land on which a 10 mw plant will be built. Work on the plant is scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2009.The bio-mass plant will be rice husk based. The company has tied up with 100 rice mills to supply around 3200 tonnes of rice husk per day.
Work on the 5 mw solar PV project in Bankura is underway, civil construction is on. ARRL is expected to get second allocation for another 5 Mw project.