The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) will generate power from organic waste with the help of the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency. The SMC has identified a plot at Putimari, in Rajganj block, 12km from the town, for the proposed project. "We will donate 13 acres of land and set up infrastructure like boundary wall, housing for employees, drainage, roads, electricity and water,' said Mukul Sengupta, member, mayor-in-council (MIC), conservancy. According to Sengupta, the SMC collects 300-400 tonne of garbage every day from different wards, 30 per cent of which are used for producing fertiliser. The rest will be segregated by the solid waste management system of the civic body. The organic wastes will then be burnt in a furnace to generate around 5 to 7mw power. The civic body pays Rs 7-9 lakh per month as electricity bill for streetlights and pumping water. The money will be saved once the project starts, Sengupta said. "We have agreed to give the technical support to the SMC in generating power,' Shaktipado Gan Choudhury, the special secretary of the Bengal power department and director of the agency told The Telegraph from Calcutta. A similar project, the first in Bengal, was implemented by the Howrah Municipal Corporation. The Siliguri mayor, Bikash Ghosh, said the civic body got the idea of generating power from waste at a meeting convened by the agency in December for all municipalities of north Bengal. "We decided to accept the proposal in our last mayor-in-council (MIC) meeting on March 24 and the board meeting endorsed it two days later,' he added.