BATHINDA: The start of a biomass plant, which will convert paddy and wheat residue into bio-coal, has fallen four months behind schedule due to a delay in the shipment of a vital machinery from Europe.Neway Private Limited is setting up the biomass plant and will use 300 tonnes of paddy residue every day to produce bio-coal and then sell it to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited. Being set up at Mehma Sarja village of Bathinda district, the plant was to be operational by August this year. Now, it is expected to begin by December end.In spite of the delay, the firm has promised farmers of seven villages that it would start collecting paddy stubble for free from October 20. The company had taken around 20 acres of panchayat land in Mehma Sarja on lease for 33 years. Of this, 18 acres have been kept for storage of paddy and wheat straw.The village’s panchayat is being paid Rs 40,000 per acre as the yearly lease amount. Bio-coal, which the plant will produce, is more efficient than fossil coal, which is used at thermal plants. “We will collect stubble from around 50,000 acres in seven villages, including Mehma Sarja,” said plant’s technical director S K Siva Kumar, who claims to have invented the technology to convert crop stubble into biocoal. He would run the plant along with the company on a trial.He said they had asked farmers not to burn crop residue as they would collect it by using bailers, rakes, and other machines.“We have also requested them not to use SMS combine harvesters for harvesting the crop as the residue left behind by it is of no use to us,” he added. “We will collect around two lakh tonnes of stubble for production each year. The project will cost around Rs 30 crore. This is the first plant in the world to produce bio-coal from stubble.”Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal laid the foundation stone of the plant in June this year. Kumar said the Punjab government had promised to install 200 such plants across the state. “Due to delay in shipping, machinery from Europe could not reach in time. We are hoping the machinery will arrive by October-end,” Kumar added.In Punjab, around 20 million tonnes of paddy straw is produced each year. Of this, around 25% is used and farmers set the rest on fire.Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) member secretary Karunesh Garg said the state government would establish more such plants only after the trial was a success. “We are already strictly with farmers,” he said.Mehma Sarja panchayat member Parkash Singh said no one in the village had burnt paddy residue as only 20% of the area under the crop had been harvested so far.

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