Rs. 170 Crore successful PPP model towards water conservation and care for environment
UDAIPUR: Hindustan Zinc and Rajasthan Government have joined hands to built the first Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) of Rajasthan in Udaipur on ‘Design Build Own Operate and Transfer’ basis. A tripartite agreement between Hindustan Zinc, Udaipur Municipal Corporation and UIT was signed recently.
As per the agreement Hindustan Zinc, world’s largest integrated zinc producer and Vedanta Group Company in zinc-lead-silver business, would construct a 20 million litres per day (MLD) Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Udaipur with a cost of Rs. 170 crore. This STP project is being seen as a major step not only towards treatment of sewage but also as significant initiative towards care for the environment and conservation of water. This STP plant will only be treating domestic sewage and not industrial sewage.
The treatment of sewage will generate a large quantity of manure which under the agreement would be sold by Udaipur Municipal Corporation, the local body, and is likely to generate revenue of about Rs. 1 crore per year for the department. To discourage the heaping-up of large quantity of manure, the Udaipur Municipal Corporation would sell the manure on fortnightly basis.
In the last few years, Udaipur city has seen a major spurt in population and infrastructure development. The increase in population has also challenged the present infrastructure available in the city. Lately there has been a great reason to up-keep not only the city clean but most importantly the majestic lakes which are facing the challenge of sustaining their freshness and scarcity of water. Disposal of human waste in lakes has been a critical reason for concern as the pollution clearly reflects on the surface of the water.
As known, Udaipur is a city of lakes and also one of the world’s most beautiful cities, with a wonderful blend of elevated hills, magnificent cultural heritage with exotic palaces, celestial aesthetic temples and colorful festivals. Udaipur has been one of the most preferred destinations for Indian and international tourism.
It is astonishing to know that Udaipur generates almost 70 million litres of sewage per day. Cleaning this sewage is in itself a challenge. There was a dire need for a large corporate to align and associate with the Government to address this problem.
Hindustan Zinc while understanding the gravity of this problem had initiated this project with the Rajasthan government 2 years back in May 2010.
Akhilesh Joshi, Chief Executive Officer of Hindustan Zinc informed that “Hindustan Zinc has undertaken several community service projects in close association with the Rajasthan government. Saving water has always been a focus area for Hindustan Zinc. Our all units operate on ‘Zero Discharge’ and we have been quite successful in significantly reducing the consumption of water in our plants. This Sewage Treatment Plant is a significant step towards conservation of water and care for environment”.
