KARACHI: Chinese firm offered solid waste contract
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Nov 11: The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) on Sunday signed an agreement with a Chinese firm for the solid waste management in the metropolis.
Under the 20-year-agreement, the city government would pay $20 per ton to the firm as charges for the lifting, safe disposal and other services concerning solid waste management.
It also envisages upgrading of the existing landfill sites, construction of eight garbage transfer stations and developing another landfill site in the city.
The lifting and transportation of solid waste would be carried out during daytime for which covered vehicles would be used. The firm will also ensure bringing about an improvement in the overall environment at and around all garbage dumping station.
The agreement was signed by Managing Director of Shanghai Shen Gong Environmental Protection Company Mr Qian Yu Lin and EDO Municipal Services Masood Alam at a ceremony held in a local hotel. The ceremony was attended by Consul General of China in Karachi Chen Shan Min, City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal and senior officials.
Describing the deal as financially viable, Mr Alam told Dawn that Rs3 billion were being spent annually on the city’s solid waste disposal. “Around 8,000 tons of solid waste is generated every day,” he pointed out, adding that “the estimated amount to be paid to the Chinese firm for its disposal will come up to around Rs3.4 billion per annum.” He said the city government would get 15 per cent of the revenues to be generated by the Chinese firm through recycling of the waste. Besides, the city government would also get 15 per cent share in the firm’s income from the waste-based energy project.
He said a final agreement with the firm would be signed after it would formally accept the terms and condition of the Letter of Intent signed on Sunday. The ground mobilisation would begin within three months, he added.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Syed Mustafa Kamal termed the deal “a revolutionary step”, and said that besides ensuring timely lifting of solid waste on a door-to-door basis, the agreement had ensured a handsome foreign investment of $250 million and an improvement in the city’s environment.
He said that the city government had been working on the “Integrated Municipal Solid Waste & Hazardous Hospital Waste Management” project for a year. In this regard, he said, expression of interest (EoI) from reputed companies was invited and five firms, one of them local, had offered their bids. The highest bid, he added, was $64 per ton and the lowest $20 per ton, offered by the Chinese firm.
He said that the firm would also lift and dispose of hospital and chemical waste as per the standard scientific methods.
Mr Kamal said that the company would establish a waste-based energy plant having a capacity of generating 560 megawatts electricity, which would be sold to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).
He said that the agreement envisaged the same rate of $20 per ton for the lifting and disposal of solid waste during the entire contract period.
Mr Qian Yu Lin said that the firm intended to start work under the project in January 2008.
Naib City Nazim Nasreen Jalil, DCO Karachi Javed Hanif, town nazims, representatives of various industrial associations and prominent businessmen were among those present at the ceremony.
