Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and Finnish joint venture Nepwaste initialed a project development agreement (PDA) on Wednesday for the management of solid waste in the Kathmandu Valley, IBN said in a press statement. 

Nepwaste will undertake Package Number 1 of the Kathmandu Valley Integrated Solid Waste Management Project which covers Kathmandu Metropolitan City and nine neighbouring municipalities: Budhanilkantha, Nagarjun, Tokha, Tarakeshwor, Gokarneshwor, Sankharapur, Dakshinkali, Kageshwori-Manohara and Chandragiri. 

CEO of IBN Maha Prasad Adhikari and Nepwaste Chair Sangita Shrestha initialed the PDA on behalf of their respective organizations. The PDA has to be approved by the IBN board of directors which is chaired by the prime minister. As per the PDA, Nepwaste will collect a service charge of Rs219 per household per month to pick up their garbage. 

Nepwaste will build a landfill site at Bancharedanda in Nuwakot and a transfer station at Teku in Kathmandu to manage the solid waste. The company will also set up processing and recycling units at the landfill site. 

The garbage collected from homes will be segregated into biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. The company will turn the trash into compost fertilizer, petroleum products and natural gas besides generating up to 5 MW of electricity. Most of the solid waste will be recycled, and only 20 percent will be put in the landfill site. 

The PDA has given a transition period of three months for the project developer to take over the existing waste management system. “The Finnish joint venture has nine months to complete the financial closure, and it has to construct the landfill site, processing facility and transfer station within two years after that,” IBN said. Nepwaste will start waste collection three months after the PDA is approved, and use the existing landfill site at Sisdol until a new facility is built at Bancharedanda. Also, it will use the transfer station at Teku which is currently being used by Kathmandu Metropolitan City. 

The company has to hand over the project to the government after 20 years, and pay around Rs3 billion in royalties during the period. 

IBN has said it will now start PDA negotiations with Clean Valley Company which will undertake waste management in Lalitpur Metropolitan City and adjoining municipalities besides Kirtipur and Bhaktapur under Package Numbers 2 and 3. 

The estimated cost of the project is Rs5 billion for the first package and Rs2 billion for the second and third packages.