Door-to-door garbage lifting in 52 wards to begin soon

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 28

After three years of dilly-dallying, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has finally given a nod to the door-to-door garbage-collection system that will be carried out in 52 wards in the city. The process will begin from July 31 after identification and initial recce for garbage-collection spots were completed.

SL Infra Projects will be deploying garbage trucks and machinery for the process that will lift 375 metric tones (mt) of garbage from 2, 20, 220 residential and commercial properties. The company will be responsible for door-to-door garbage collection and its transportation from the 52 MC wards in the city and subsequently unloading it at the Bhagtanwala dumping yard along with other designated spots, as per the agreement by using 240 pickup trucks in the first phase. The MC has allotted eight spots as compactor sites, where all the pickup trucks will dump the garbage in a compactor. The process is a part of the Solid Waste Management Plant project that has seen several delays in the past and the company has been given a time of two years to set up and establish the plant in all respects.

The trucks will lift garbage three times a day and the compactor trucks used for dumping the garbage collectively to the landfill sites will be used twice a day. Garbage segregation will also be done by distributing two types of dustbins in each household – one for wet waste and the other for dry waste. As many as 150 dustbins will also be installed at various sites across the city.

The decision has come as a respite to residents as the ambitious Solid Waste Management Project has been touted as a solution to the garbage problem in the city. MC Commissioner Sonali Giri had earlier informed that an awareness campaign will also be launched from July 1 to make people aware of the garbage segregation process and about civic hygiene. The door-to-door garbage-lifting process will employ 600 private employees.