Government signs service agreement with Tatva for waste management project

The Finance Ministry has signed the service agreement for a renegotiated waste management contract with India-based Tatva Global Renewable Energy last week.

Newspaper Haveeru reported that the government will pay MVR8million as a mobilisation fee to commence the waste management project within 45 days under the service agreement signed on Thursday (October 31), which includes all the details for implementation.

The company has been provided a 700,000 square foot plot in Thilafushi as well as the garbage trucks used by the Male’ City Council. While Tatva will dispose of garbage collected at the waste dump in Male’ under the first phase of the project, the company will begin providing a garbage collection service to households in the capital under the second phase.

Each phase is expected to take 18 months for completion.

The previous administration of former president Mohamed Nasheed signed an agreement with Tatva in May 2011 as part of efforts to generate power from recycling waste gathered from Male’ as well as surrounding inhabited and resort islands.

However, by December last year, President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s administration had announced it was in the process of renegotiating Tatva’s agreement in a bid to replace the deal with what Environment Minister Dr Mariyam Shakeela at the time called a “mutually beneficial” agreement.