The US government's Technology Development Assistance (TDA) has backed out from its commitment to fund a joint-sector centralised bio-medical waste treatment facility in Lucknow using micro wave technology. The project was to be implemented in collaboration with the US-based Sanitac Inc.
The project promoters, the Delhi-based Byford Group of Companies, said the preliminaries for the fund tieup with TDA had already been worked out when the US economic sanctions came into force. Following this, their US consultants informed that their client was unwilling to fund the venture.
However, B K Sahni, the chairman of Byford Group of Companies, said that though their plans have been upset, it is not going to make a material difference because they are exploring alternative sources of financing. He added that HUDCO has already agreed to finance up to 70 per cent of the project cost as a result of a policy shift under which it has undertaken financing of private sector projects.
The project cost is in the region of Rs 5-6 crore.
Under the arrangement with TDA, the promoters were to receive about Rs 2.5 crore as interest-free grant from TDA. Also, the agreement would have entitled the promoters to take further grants to take care of the project's future fund requirements.
The Lucknow project, like the one to be set up in Delhi by the same group, is to use the high-tech microwave system. The project will also have the incinerator facility.
Sanitac Inc is the technology supplier for both the projects.
The Delhi project is likely to be funded by the United Nations' Global Environment Facility (GEF), which, the promoters hope, will not go the TDA. India is a donor to the GEF, which is a multi-lateral agency.
The Delhi facility is expected to be ready by the year-end, while the Lucknow unit is scheduled for early next year.
It is estimated that there are about 14,250 hospitals and 34,900 dispensaries in the country which together generate about 1.43 million tonne of wastes, 25 per cent of which is hazardous. In the face of careless waste disposal by some hospitals and dispensaries, the Supreme Court, the environment ministry and the Central Pollution Control Board have framed guidelines for scientific disposal of such wastes with penal provisions for the defaulters.
