The SGPC will set up a biogas plant at the Golden Temple kitchen, which offers langar (community food) to at least 60,000 devotees daily. Along with being a source of continuous economical fuel to ignite the kitchen of the shrine, it will also make optimum use of tonnes of leftover vegetable wastage. The biogas plant is being set up in collaboration with HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd) under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) head that will cost around Rs 2 crore. At present, the langar is being prepared on LPG-run hobs and partially by firewood. Once the biogas plant is installed, the officials viewed that there would be negligible necessity of firewood, which caused pollution. 90 to 125 cylinders are used every day at the community kitchen to prepare langar. Looking at the high cost of LPG cylinders on commercial rate, the SGPC’s repeated pleas for subsidy on them was never heard. About this smart kitchen concept, the SGPC’s additional secretary Diljit Singh Bedi said nearly four tonne of wastage that was generated on an average daily, would be enough to ignite the Golden Temple kitchen. “It was decided in the last executive body meeting to set up a biogas plant in the Golden Temple kitchen. We have asked the MC to submit the project report,” he said. MC Commissioner Sonali Giri said, “We need to make provision for underground refuse storage bins and bio compactors. This will be followed by the process through which the waste has to be fed to the biogas plant to ignite fire.” -PTC News