Ghaziabad to add 350 new vehicles to its door-to-door waste collection fleet

The city generates about 1,400 metric tonnes of daily solid waste and has 216 vehicles for primary door-to-door collection activities in 100 residential wards

Come January, and the Ghaziabad municipal corporation will add 350 new door-to-door collection vehicles to its fleet to bolster its solid waste collection activities.

Municipal officials said all vehicles will be fitted with GPS devices to track their routes from a centralised control room. About 200 of these will be provided exclusively for door-to-door collection in residential areas. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The city generates about 1,400 metric tonnes of daily solid waste and has 216 vehicles for primary door-to-door collection activities in 100 residential wards. The officials said these vehicles are also engaged in solid waste collection from markets, dustbin locations, and industrial areas, among others.

“So, the number of rounds that these vehicles make of residential areas is fewer. We have floated a tender to procure 350 new vehicles which will start arriving from next month. About 200 of these will be provided exclusively for door-to-door collection in residential areas. This will considerably improve primary waste collection. The remaining 150 vehicles will be dedicated for collection of waste from markets, industrial areas, and dustbins in public places etc,” said Mithilesh Kumar, health officer, Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

The officials said all 350 new vehicles will run on CNG while about 20 of the existing vehicles, which run on diesel, will be phased out.

Municipal officials said all vehicles will be fitted with GPS devices to track their routes from a centralised control room.

City’s waste processing prospects have been hit hard by delays in making the waste to energy plant in Galand, in Hapur, operational. The 44 acre land there was handed over to the corporation by the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) for the plant, which officials said will cater to the solid waste from three local bodies -- Ghaziabad, Pilkhuwa and Hapur.

The plant was proposed to have a processing capacity of around 2500 metric tonnes. But till date, the different agencies have not been able to construct even the boundary wall at the site owing to protests by residents.