The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is all set to sign a MoU with Japan on drafting a master plan for developing safe and eco-friendly waste treatment modules.

Japan had evinced keen interest in Surat Municipal Corporation's eco drive and for developing the plan. The master plan will be provided to SMC for free.

Japan had agreed to prepare the master-plan after conducting a thorough study of the work done by the civic body in areas of solid and liquid waste management.

A team of civic engineers had presented the civic work module during a conference held in the city of Kitakyushu in Japan on December 22. Impressed with SMC's activities, the East-Asian country offered to provide help in enhancing waste management.

The help will involve providing ideas related to possible waste recycling, its reuse and reproduction.

"They will provide us the technology and technical know-how required to dispose waste, with least harm to the atmosphere.

We are not required to pay for the consultancy services; but will have to incur cost only for technology installation. We are working adequately in liquid waste, but something fruitful is required for solid waste management," said, Jatin Shah, SMC city engineer.

Shah added that the civic body has already installed bio-gas based power plants at five sewage treatment plants in Surat. The electricity produced by the bio-gas based turbines run all the treatment plants and this saves electricity worth Rs12.36 crore annually.

Apart from drafting the master-plan, Japan will also present a live demo of its plan before the civic engineers. A team of Japanese experts will visit Surat to guide civic officials and for passing on technical knowledge.

Besides human waste, industrial waste is also a big challenge for SMC. Majority of the industrial waste results from textile sectors such as yarn manufacturing, cloth manufacturing and textile processing.

The civic body collects an annual waste of more than 150 metric tons from these three units. Water pollution is another major issue related with the sector.