guwahati is all set to get a clean image with the launch of two ambitious projects that will gradually rid the city of garbage. Under the new schemes, waste collected from the city will be used to produce bio-fertiliser and electricity in two separate ventures.

Guwahati-based North East Green Tech Pvt Ltd had launched the programme to produce organic fertiliser out of vegetable waste since 1996. Today, with technical support from Terra-Firma Bio-technologies Ltd, Bangalore, the firm produces daily around two metric tonnes of the bio-fertiliser brand, named Black Gold. "Black Gold is a pure eco-friendly, non toxic, non-chemical, non-hazardous type of humus organic bio-fertiliser made through vermicompost technology from vegetable wastes,' says Chinmoy Sharma, the managing director of North East Green Tech Pvt Ltd.

In the second venture, a memorandum of understanding ( m o u ) has been agreed on by Calcutta-based firm Sarbanand Impex Pvt Ltd and the Assam State Electricity Board to produce electricity by using garbage generated by the city as the raw product. The Rs 50 crore project is estimated to produce 10 megawatt ( mw ) electricity with its gas turbine power generation unit.

The project will require more than 300 metric tones of garbage per day as its raw material. Guwahati reportedly generates around 200 metric tones of garbage every day. However, given the city's rapid population growth, it will not be long before the required amount of raw material is generated.