Household waste collection: Jabalpur civic body seeks more details
The mayor-in-council of the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation has halted the tendering process for assigning the project of door-to-door collection of household waste. The project is a major component of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
The mayor-in-council of the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation has halted the tendering process for assigning the project of door-to-door collection of household waste. The project is a major component of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
The mayor-in-council has asked municipal authorities to revert within three weeks with details of rates being paid to contractors by municipal bodies in areas with the system already in place.
Authorities had earlier furnished details of the rates in Surat in Gujarat and Cuttack in Odisha, where municipal bodies paid private contractors around Rs 1,500 per ton for the door-to-door collection of garbage, but the mayor-in-council found the data insufficient in deciding the bids.
In Jabalpur, about 450 metric tonnes of garbage is generated from both household and commercial sources.
Presently, out of 79 municipal wards, door-to-door collection of household waste is done in seven municipal wards. In 28 municipal wards, the lifting of garbage is done by the private contractors from the roadside waste bins, while in 44 wards, employees of the municipal corporation carry out the work.
The municipal corporation is scheduled to spend `24 crore on garbage collection in 79 wards in the current financial year. In January 2014, 55 villages were merged in the municipal corporation and nine new wards were created.
Mayor Swati Godbole told HT, “We will adopt a pragmatic approach in finalizing the bid for door-to-door collection of household wastes. Unlike Surat or Cuttack, the Jabalpur municipal limits has hilly areas in some parts, which can cause a variation in the cost of collection of garbage, therefore more study is required before we can finalise anything.”
A garbage disposal unit being built by a private firm on land provided by the municipal corporation is nearing completion and is expected to start operating from next month. “We will finalize the bid by then,” the mayor added.