This move will serve dual purpose. It will not only be a source of continuous economical fuel to ignite the round-the-clock kitchen of the shrine, but will also make optimum use of tonnes of leftover vegetable wastage.
The SGPC has roped in the Amritsar Municipal Corporation to set up the plant. Costing around Rs 2 crore, the biogas plant is being set up in collaboration with HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd) under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) head.
The SGPC has already earmarked the plot located near Sri Guru Ram Dass Langar Hall, which is undergoing expansion. At present, the langar is being prepared on LPG-run hobs and partially by firewood. Once the biogas plant is installed, the officials viewed that there would be negligible necessity of firewood, which caused pollution.
The use of LPG cylinders, which are charged on commercial rates, too, would be minimised. On an average, 90 LPG cylinders are used daily to prepare langar. The figure increases to 125 cylinders on special occasions like Diwali, Gurpurbs, Sangrandh, etc.
Looking at the high cost of LPG cylinders on commercial rate, the SGPC’s repeated pleas for subsidy on them was never heard.
The gurdwaras used to get subsidised LPG cylinders at the rate of Rs 422 each and after the withdrawal of the subsidy, the cylinder cost escalated to Rs 1,086 each.
About this smart kitchen concept, the SGPC’s additional secretary Diljit Singh Bedi said nearly four tonne of wastage that was generated on an average daily, would be enough to ignite the Golden Temple kitchen.
“It was decided in the last executive body meeting to set up a biogas plant in the Golden Temple kitchen. We have asked the MC to submit the project report,” he said.
MC Commissioner Sonali Giri said an MoU was signed with the HPCL Bio Fuels and once the official formalities with the SGPC were furnished, it would take just four months to set up infrastructure for the biogas plant.
“We need to make provision for underground refuse storage bins and bio compactors. This will be followed by the process through which the waste has to be fed to the biogas plant to ignite fire,” she said.
