Mumbai JV wins bid for Nepal’s first recycling plant

KATHMANDU - Navi Mumbai’s Hydroair Tectonic’s joint venture with Nepal’s Kasturi Trade Link has won the bid for setting up Nepal’s first waste recycling plant, pipping five other Indian JVs in the fray as well as a Finnish consortium, breaking a long jinx on Indian bidders in the country.

The memorandum of understanding, signed between Hydroair and Nepal’s local development ministry Monday, is for a 20-year contract to be preceded by a detailed project report (DPR) and an environmental impact assessment.

The final contract will be inked once the DPR is submitted.

Kathmandu produces about 600 tonnes of waste daily and the recycling is expected to lead to the manufacture of compost and bio-energy. The recycling plant is expected to be operational within three years.

The disposal of Kathmandu valley’s garbage is to be done in three phases. While the capital and its neighbouring areas get priority, adjoining Lalitpur and Kirtipur will be targeted in the second phase while Bhaktapur town and its surroundings will be addressed in the last phase.

The JV has paid an earnest money of NRS 1.5 million and will have to deposit an additional NRS 5 million after the final contract is signed.

If it leaves the project incomplete, the first tranche of earnest money will be confiscated and the government will be free to terminate the deal. Daily waste disposal remains one of the most chaotic jobs in Nepal with residents of the landfill sites regularly opposing dumping of waste.

Waste piling up for a week to 10 days is a regular occurrence now along with fears of an epidemic like cholera.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in )