In a significant move towards environmental sustainability, the Assam government has announced a partnership with Oil India Limited (OIL) to convert municipal waste into biofuel in five major cities across the state—Guwahati, Silchar, Tezpur, Dibrugarh, and Tinsukia.
The announcement was made on World Environment Day during an event held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma emphasized the project’s potential to transform plastic and other municipal waste into clean energy.
“I believe we will be able to collect more and more plastic waste and hand it over to Oil India, which will convert it into biofuel in these five cities,” Sarma said. He added that the state government will begin the process in collaboration with OIL within the next few days.
The initiative is part of OIL’s broader national program to establish 25 Compressed Biogas (CBG) plants across India under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. These plants will utilize municipal solid waste, agricultural residue, and other organic materials to produce compressed biogas.
Notably, in October 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stones for four OIL-operated CBG plants in Guwahati, Jorhat, Sivasagar, and Tinsukia. Each plant is designed to process approximately 125 tonnes of waste daily and produce around two tonnes of compressed biogas. The facilities will feature zero liquid discharge systems to ensure minimal environmental impact.
Turning attention to the state’s anti-plastic measures, the Chief Minister reiterated Assam’s commitment to reducing plastic waste. He highlighted that the sale of plastic water bottles below one litre has already been banned. However, bottles above that threshold are still permitted due to economic concerns.
“I initially wanted to ban plastic bottles up to one litre,” Sarma explained, “but local entrepreneurs informed us that about 600 mineral water units have outstanding loans. To avoid jeopardizing their livelihoods, we decided to ban only 500 ml bottles for now.”
Sarma affirmed that Assam is aligning its policies with the Central government’s national mission to eliminate plastic waste. “The Union government is taking concrete steps, and we too will carry forward this green pledge,” he said.
