Civic body’s sanitation project to curtail expenses by Rs 10 lakh

Ravneet Singh 

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 14

The project to install smart semi-underground waste collection bins and portable compactors will take off on Wednesday. The company, which has been given the charge to undertake the project, has submitted its plan to the Municipal Corporation (MC). The project will tentatively be completed by March 31. Once completed, it is expected to help the MC bring down the expenditure by Rs 10 lakh a month.

Mayor Sanjeev Kumar Sharma on Sunday said, “We have been dealing with 63 locations in the city where heaps of garbage lie unattended. With implementation of the project, these points will become clean. The collection, transportation and storage of garbage will be dealt with proper care.”

The contractor, Zonta Infratech Private Ltd, has been instructed by the MC to initially install waste collection bins and compactors at the already designated spots alongside the Bhadson road, near Sabzi Mandi, and the Malwa theatre in the city. Apart from this, the MC has identified more 36 spots across the city to be covered under the project. Of these, 25 spots will have three bins each with a capacity of 10 quintal, five spots with two bins each and six locations where compactors will be installed. 

The compactors having capacity of eight tonne each will be installed at places witnessing a large accumulation of garbage. These include the Bhadson road stretch and the city’s main Sabzi Mandi. The compactors and bins will be able to store and help transport over 150 tonne of garbage every day.

Officials say the project would help keep the city clean besides helping the MC curtailing its expenditure on the same process. 

Currently, workers using carts, trucks and trolleys to ferry garbage from small dumps in the city to the main dumping ground at the Sanaur road do not work on weekends, but the company will work throughout the week. 

The MC expects to bring down its tipping expenditure with the implementation of the project by about Rs 10 lakh every month. MM Syal, Superintending Engineer (SE), said, “Presently, we are spending about Rs 35,000 on the process, which includes payment of salaries to employees, maintenance of vehicles, such as JCB machines, trolleys and tractors. We will pay the company Rs 423 per tonne of garbage. This is expected to bring down the total expenditure by Rs 10 lakh a month.”

The city, with a population of nearly 4.31 lakh, presently produces over 200 tonne of waste every day. The MC will initially dump the garbage at the present dumping ground at the Sanaur road. The civic body has already identified 20-acre land for the project in Dudhar village, 20 km from here.

Sensors to inform workers

The project involves smart bins. These will be able to intimate truck drivers supposed to transport the garbage about the quantity of garbage dumped in them. The sensors installed in the bins will send messages to the vehicles concerned when they are filled over 80 per cent.