The Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has announced a financial facility of $55 million (£47.6m) to include municipal solid waste (MSW) projects within the guidelines of its waste to energy programme.

According to a new report by consultancy firm Mercom India, the Department of Expenditure has confirmed the grant for a Central Financial Assistance (CFA) with a target of 200MW.

As per research, a CFA of $11.37 million (£9.8m) was initially allocated to biogas, bio-CNG and enriched biogas power in 2018.

The assistance has now ben extended to biomass gasifier projects and a revised grant of $65.43 million (£56.7m) has been approved for a target of 257MW for the remaining period of 2019-2020.

The guidelines clearly state that biogas generation projects based on distillery effluents or wastes from fossil fuels and waste heat will not be eligible for the CFA. There will also be no cap on the capacity of projects supported under the programme, in a bid to meet the expected targets.