LAHORE: Punjab government aims to complete waste to energy projects in six major cities of the Province within a year.
While presiding over a meeting on Monday, senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan directed the concerned officials to start waste to energy projects in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Sialkot immediately.
He further announced that Islamabad will also be included in the scheme. The government will also gift the same project to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government for Peshawar, he added.
Punjab Local Government and Community Department Department (LGCDD) have been directed to establish the plants. LGCDD Secretary Captain (retd) Saif Anjum gave a detailed presentation to meeting participants about the project and shared past experiences.
Long term planning has been devised for waste to energy projects, which will be part of the Clean and Green Punjab Campaign, he said. The project will be initiated with the cooperation of Chinese and other foreign companies.
The minister said that “the initiative will replace dumping sites where garbage will produce electricity, gas and other usable products.”
Initial estimates suggest that the project will help in reducing 2,000 tons of Lahore city’s municipal solid waste per day to generate electricity.
The senior minister claimed that in order to ensure a healthy environment for citizens and avoiding damage to the soil in the six cities, other urban areas will also be included in the scheme, adding that the project will be carried out in each district of the Punjab province in the later stages.
Abdul Aleem Khan criticized the previous government for not paying proper attention towards waste management and a lack of long term planning. He said that the present government has approved a number of policies for LGCDD and practical work will be started soon.
In November 2018, the Punjab government signed an agreement with a Chinese company to establish a 40MW waste to energy plant on 52 hectares around Lahore.