Faridabad: After an investment of Rs 240 crore, STPs are waiting for electricity to start up

Work at both of the sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Pratapgarh and Mirzapur villages has not yet started, despite the Municipal Corporation having spent Rs 240 crore on their upgrades. Why? There are sources inside the city body stating that the STPs have not yet received power hookups.

Since its inception four years ago, the project has already missed two deadlines because of a variety of problems, such as delayed payments and technological difficulties.

The Mirzapur STP has a daily capacity of 80 million litres of sewage treatment, compared to the 100 MLD capacity of the Pratapgarh STP. The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad renovated both units.

Due to the lack of electricity, the building work has already been delayed for more than a year, and this delay is only increasing.

According to authorities, the city is experiencing a waste management crisis since STPs can only handle 50 MLD of trash compared to 350 MLD of demand. “Even though the STPs are finished, the trial cannot begin until the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) provides a power connection,” said Nitin Kadian, the Faridabad Municipality’s executive engineer. It has been discovered that the procedure for obtaining a power connection was initiated with the relevant department in the previous year.

Sources claim that between 85 and 90 percent of untreated trash is now being dumped into sewers and the Yamuna.

Although work on modernizing these STPs had begun in 2019–20, the project failed to meet its deadlines on March 31, 2024, and December 20, 22.

As of right now, Sector 21’s STP and Badshahpur’s 37.5 MLD unit are the two operational STPs in the city. An outdated 45 MLD STP in Badshahpur that was put into service in September 2011 has been abandoned, and the MC wants to rebuild it.

In Sector 69 of Industrial Model Township (IMT), there are two operational common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) with a 9.2 MLD functional capacity for processing industrial waste. A research claims that over 698 industrial facilities have been releasing untreated trash. There are plans to build three additional CETPs in the city.

Since the local authority had only recently filed the relevant paperwork, DHBVN SDO Ankit Aggarwal said that electricity connections to the units will be provided by the following week. He also said that power will be supplied to each unit via separate feeders with a 2,000 KW capacity.