Centre clears Rs 860 crore worth Swachh projects for West Bengal

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs announced on Thursday that it has approved proposals worth Rs 860.35 crore for West Bengal under the second phase of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U 2.0).

During the first phase of SBM-U (2014-19) a total fund of Rs 911.34 crore was allocated to West Bengal which has been increased by 1.5 times to Rs 1,449.30 crore in SBM-U 2.0 (2021-26), the Ministry said.

The Ministry said that it has been working closely with West Bengal to achieve significant advancements in waste management and the target is to have waste processing plants in all cities of the state by 2026 under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban.

There are 118 legacy waste dumpsites in West Bengal of which only 5 per cent waste has been remediated.

The Dhapa landfill, Kolkata's main municipal dumping ground since 1987, has been undergoing bio-mining and bioremediation, the methods chosen by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for clearing legacy waste, which allow extraction of usable materials from the waste.

Cities in West Bengal generate around 4,046 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day.

Under SBM-U 2.0, the state has proposed projects to manage this huge quantity of waste that includes over 4,800 composting plants and 4,500 Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs).

To facilitate disposal of solid waste in an environmentally safe manner, 2,216 Secured Landfill Facilities (SLFs) have been proposed by the state.

The state has received a major push for Waste to Energy with the Ministry's approval for 460 Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) plants.

Proposals worth Rs 217 crore have been approved under SBM-U 2.0 for the remediation of legacy waste dumpsites in over 100 ULBs.

To maintain a seamless flow of funds for managing sanitation and waste management, the Centre released an additional tranche of Rs 209 crore to fast-track the proposed projects by the state.