According to Ashwin C Shroff, managing director, Excel, the company has planned similar projects in cities like Calcutta, Chandigarh, Jallundur, Delhi, Jaipur, Surat, Nashik and Udaipur. The company has tied up with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to set up a 500 tonne per day (TPD) waste conversion plant at Deonar in Mumbai. It has already set up plants in Thane and Malad and plans are afoot for plants in Vashi, Nagpur, Kolhapur and Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

The plants set up by company will be converting 5,000 tonnes of garbage by the next month. Once the plants being planned by company in various cities go on stream, the conversion capacity will go up to 5 lakh tonnes per day.Shroff said the company has developed a technology to convert waste into a bio-organic soil enricher. The company has already started marketing this organic fertiliser -- Celrich -- in the country. ``The project has many advantages.

It will help in eliminating the menace of garbage in cities. Moreover, the organic fertiliser (converted from waste) can be used by farmers to enrich the soil,'' said Mohan Jawdekar, chief manager of Excel Industries.

According to Shroff, the company has decided to set up waste conversion plants in other countries as well. It has planned a 1,000 tpd plant in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is also exploring similar projects in Oman and Uganda.In India, a 600 tpd plant will cost nearly Rs seven crore. ``Speedy clearance of the project, allotment of land, levelling and developing of dumpyard and delivery of assured quantity of garbage are required to make such projects viable. The major advantage is that such projects will bring down the hazards of pollution in cities,'' Shroff said, adding, ``a city like Mumbai generates over 5,500 tonnes per day of garbage. By setting up waste conversion plants, this can used for productive purposes.''

``Banks and institutions should extend concessional financing for such projects. Besides, there should be subsidy in terms of transport. Currently organic fertiliser is facing tough competition from highly subsidised chemical fertiliser,'' Shroff said. The current production cost in different units is Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,400 per tonne of garbage. Elaborating on the need to use organic fertiliser, he said organic carbon in Indian soil is as low as 0.4 per cent to 0.9 per cent whereas the requirement is five per cent.