LAHORE, March 31: District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood inaugurated the first compost plant in the country built under public-private cooperation at a cost of Rs220 million at the Mahmood Booti Bund here on Friday.

On the occasion he said the plant had the capacity to produce 250 tons of organic fertiliser daily from 1,000 tons of garbage to be supplied by the Solid Waste Management wing of City District Government. The annual production capacity of the plant, completed in nine months, was estimated at 90,000 tons. The plant has been on trial run for the past three months

He said the plant had been built on 300 kanals of land by Lahore Compost on built-operate-transfer basis. The company would pay 10 per cent of the profit to be generated from the plant to the CDGL for utilisation on provision of social services to the people, and transfer the plant’s ownership to the city district government after 25 years.

He said the CDGL had started work on the plant project after success of the experiment of lifting garbage with private sector cooperation. It had resulted in saving an average 1,000 litres of diesel used by the SWM trucks daily, he claimed.

He hoped the project would become an example for other district governments to follow, and added the CDGL was also examining feasibility of awarding contract for construction of another compost plant on Multan Road.