20 PMPML buses in Pune to run on bio CNG
Renuka Suryavanshi ———————————————————————————
Pune city for the past many years has been struggling to dispose of the waste that is being generated everyday. Some researchers and Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) newly appointed chairman and managing director Dr Rajendra Jagtap (IAS) have introduced the concept of using food waste to generate biogas on which these buses will run. Few buses on this bio compressed gas will run in Pimpri Chinchwad city soon.
This procedure for unique waste handling of hotel food waste from the city into commercial gas started in 2014 when Dr Rajendra Jagtap was the Additional Chief Executive Officer of Pune Municipal Corporation when the project was approved. Jagtap has completed his PhD in solid waste management of Pune city.
He said, “As a CEO of Pune smart city then I presented the case to convince petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan when he visited the site. It is only because of this that Indian Oil is now marketing the Bio CNG.”
Jagtap further says that as the CMD of PMPML now the trials have reached to the second stage and they have been successful. The board has approved a commercial outlet for PMPML at Nigdi for about 50 buses to start with. This makes Pune the first city outside Sweden to use its own city waste to fuel its own city buses through Bio CNG.
Explaining further the importance of making city pollution free, he says, “Life has come to a full circle where we are able to provide an end to end solution, where conversion of waste to useful green environmentally friendly non polluting products is now possible. Multiple trials have happened on PMPML buses in the last four years. Also, all necessary certification and permission for use is available now.
“We start using the gas commercially from Indian oil and Noble gas talegaon facilities from around 20 October till the outlet in Nigdi becomes fully functional, ” adds Jagtap.
Urban Sustainability –
City Waste to City Bus NEX collectively with Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) is working to demonstrate the the “City waste to City bus” model. PMPML manages a fleet of over 1000+ buses manufactured for use of CNG as fuel. The replacement of CNG – that is Fossil Fuel – by CBG that is processed from food waste generated from Pune City will prove to be long term, environmentally sustainable solution and indeed a role model for other cities to emulate. The space for the dedicated fuel station has been identified and demarcated. Commercial operations for fuelling first 20 buses is scheduled to commence operations by end of October 2020 and 100 City busses with CBG is expected to commence from January 2021.
