The kitchen is the second biogas project after the Saravanampatty Amma Unavagam

Women of Kamaraj Nagar in ward 6 will be able to save big on LPG cylinder usage, thanks to the Coimbatore Corporation’s Rs. 17.80-lakh initiative to provide them biogas-fuelled community kitchen.

The Corporation engaged the company, Nirmal Biogen Technology, to construct a biogas tank, which uses human waste as inputs to generate the gas. The objective was to make use the green energy to help the people.

As per the Coimbatore Corporation’s instruction, the company constructed 30x40 feet tank with three chambers to produce the gas. The company’s technologist V.R. Rajendran says that the waste generated from the 100 families (or 400 to 500 people) will help meet the cooking gas requirements of 35-40 people.

The waste that enters the tank from the two community toilets will reach the tank, which will get converted to gas on the 41 day. What will remain in the tank will be water, which can be used to water plants. The company has tapped the gas and taken into the kitchen, where 14 people can cook at one go.

S. Radhamani, a resident says, that the Corporation officials have told them that they would get gas from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. and again from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. The women were working out a timetable to help every family benefit from the community kitchen.

Though they had hesitation initially about using the gas, they broke it all after officials explained what it was. Now they are ready to use the community kitchen to not only protect the environment but also save on cylinder at home. The families there use one cylinder to three cylinders every two months depending on the number of members. They hope to save on it by using the community kitchen.

Mr. Rajendran says that by tapping waste from community toilets and building community kitchen, the country can save on fuel import bills.

Corporation Commissioner G. Latha says the kitchen was the second biogas project for the Corporation after the Saravanampatty Amma Unavagam. It has planned a few more projects.

Minister S.P. Velumani, who inaugurated the kitchen, asked the women to make the most of it.