New land deal to flush out Ludhiana’s dairy waste crisis.

Ludhiana: A six-year bureaucratic stalemate that has left one of Punjab's largest dairy hubs drowning in animal waste may finally be nearing an end, following a fresh land-sharing agreement between state agencies.The deal aims to revive a long-delayed compressed biogas (CBG) plant at the Tajpur Road dairy complex to stop the flow of raw effluent into the heavily polluted Buddha Dariya and transform tonnes of daily waste into fuel and profit for the city's frustrated dairy farmers. Land disputes have paralysed the project despite an agreement that Ludhiana's municipal corporation and dairy farmers had signed with the Punjab Energy Development Authority (Peda) in Dec 2019.Peda engineers had found the initial site provided by the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (Glada) to be of unsuitable dimensions for the plant's infrastructure. Under the new arrangement, the Punjab Small Industry and Exports Corporation (PSIEC) will provide Peda with a viable plot. Glada has committed to paying the market price for the PSIEC land to facilitate immediate construction.The scale of the ‘stink'The Tajpur Road complex houses 125 dairies and nearly 9,000 animals, producing an estimated 115 tonnes of cow dung every day. Without a functional processing plant, the infrastructure has buckled. Constant dumping has led to chronic choking of city's sewers. A "tussle" over logistics stalled a lifting servic, since the farmers want dung collected from inside their stalls, while the contractors insist on roadside pickup. A huge amout of waste bypasses treatment and empties into the Buddha Dariya.Waste to wealthThe project's revival follows a high-level meeting that Punjab's chief minister, Bhagwant Mann, had chaired. A senior municipal official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the CBG plant would transform the local economy from a "punitive" model to a "profitable" one."Civic authorities act against the farmers for dumping waste, but there is nowhere for the waste to go," the official said. "Once the plant is live, farmers will be paid for their cow dung that they now are forced to give away or dispose of illegally just to clear their pounds."A similar plant at the Haibowal dairy complex is going to expand, providing a blueprint for the Tajpur Road site. Once both are fully operational, officials believe the systematic dumping of animal waste into Punjab's water systems can be halted.