Solan MC outsources garbage collection in five wards

In a move aimed at ensuring cleanliness in the city, the Solan Municipal Corporation (MC) has outsourced garbage collection in five of its 17 wards.

Initiated on an experimental basis in Ward No. 4, 9, 11, 15 and 16, the job has been entrusted to a Jawalamukhi-based contractor who will undertake the collection of garbage besides sweeping in these wards. Further, the contractor shall also carry out bush cutting and maintenance of drains. The garbage would be deposited at a waste processing unit in Salogra.

Selected from among five bidders, the contractor will be paid Rs 20 lakh per month for the job.

The Solan Mayor said that if the initiative proved effective in facilitating cleanliness, it could be replicated in other wards as well. “This move has helped in sparing some civic body staff which can be put to use in improving other key areas,” the Mayor added.

The lack of timely collection of garbage has been a cause for concern in Solan and garbage can be seen littered along roads.

Solan had missed the top rank among the eight municipal corporations in the Swachh Shehar-Samridh Shehar rankings in the state. The civic body stood second with a score of 91 points. Sundernagar, which attained the top slot, had scored 96.2 points.

The Solan MC’s segregation of waste at source was, however, optimally rated with 34 points.

There are around 12,000 households, in the 17 wards under the civic body, from where garbage is collected on alternate days. As many as 161 employees collect and transport the waste in 12 vehicles in three trips to the Salogra processing facility