Union Minister for Science & Technology, Health & Family Welfare & Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Thursday inaugurated the Department of Biotechnology-Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (DBT-BIRAC) Clean Tech Demo Park at Barapullah drain site in New Delhi.
Lt. Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal and Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT and several other officials, scientists and innovators were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the inaugural, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “This Clean Tech Demo Park would be a good attraction not only for innovators and investors but also for students and common public for awareness and popularisation of clean technological solution for waste management”.
“The novel indigenous technologies developed for the treatment of sewage and industrial wastewater should be promoted and given wide publicity to ensure their commercialisation and adoption for achieving Swachh Bharat and Atmanirbhar Bharat goals,” he added.
Baijal welcomed this initiative by DBT and mentioned that land and water were important natural resources, and affirmed strong support from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to the initiative.
Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT said that the clean technology waste to value demonstration park was an important initiative to demonstrate the feasibility of such technologies for scale-up and would encourage partnerships with local bodies and other stakeholders for large-scale deployment.
The DBT-BIRAC Clean Tech Demo Park will be used to demonstrate innovative waste-to-value technologies with support from DBT and BIRAC, a public sector unit under the department. This park will be managed by the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC), a public-private partnership (PPP) incubator set up jointly by DBT, BIRAC and Tata Power.
A few other waste treatment technologies with support from DBT and BIRAC that aim to contribute to the vision of Swachha Bharat were also demonstrated virtually on the occasion.
DBT has undertaken several initiatives under the Swachh Bharat Mission for the development, demonstration and promotion of innovative clean waste-to-value technologies including biomethanation, constructed wetlands, algal treatment and water membrane filtration. The DBT-DESMI project in collaboration with Denmark for cleaning of floating debris from the Barapullah drain and the LOTUS-HR project in collaboration with the Netherlands are already been successfully demonstrated at the Barapullah site. Technologies developed by start-ups at different locations in the country will also be showcased.