E-Paper
Disposal of legacy waste: Ludhiana MC approves technical bids for appointment of contractor
On April 21, the NGT had issued a notice to the Punjab chief secretary over the Ludhiana MC’s failure to deal with legacy waste, a day after seven members of a family were charred to death near the landfill
A week after the National Green Tribunal pulled up the civic body for poor solid waste management in the city, the municipal corporation on Wednesday approved the technical bids of three contractors for disposing of legacy waste on the Tajpur Road dump.
The bids, which were approved by a city-level technical committee of Ludhiana Smart City Limited, will be sent to a state-level panel for final approval, following which the civic body will invite financial bids and award the contract to the lowest bidder.
This is the municipal corporation’s second attempt to finalise a contractor. The tenders had to be floated again as one of the three bidders did not comply with the technical norms the first time, and it is mandatory to have at least three competent bidders for a tender.
MC additional commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal said, “All three bidders have qualified this time around. We will now send the bids to the station-level technical committee (SLTC) for final approval.”
It is estimated that around 20 lakh metric tonnes of waste has accumulated on the landfill. Under the first phase of the project, 5 lakh metric tonnes of waste will be subjected to bioremediation (a process where biological organisms are used to remove or neutralise an environmental pollutant by metabolic process).
Garbage is not being processed on the 40-acre dump site for over a year. Around 1,100 tonne of garbage is dumped on the site on a daily basis.
Salient points
1. On April 21, the NGT had issued a notice to the Punjab chief secretary over the civic body’s failure to deal with legacy waste, a day after seven members of a family were charred to death near the landfill.
2) On the NGT’s directions, a monitoring committee led by Justice Jasbir Singh (retd) had visited the site on April 27 to prepare a factual report on the fire incident that claimed seven lives. The committee had slammed the MC for its failure to deal with legacy waste.
3) With the temperature increasing, regular blazes were being reported on the dump, which caused respiratory and skin issues among people living in the vicinity.
4) The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) had also imposed a ₹2.2 crore penalty on the MC for failing to deal with solid waste generated in the city.
