After Chennai, Ludhiana MC team to visit Gurugram to study solid waste mgmt model

MC committee stated that the model for management of waste in Greater Chennai Corporation was different from what was proposed for the city

After studying the solid waste management model in Greater Chennai Corporation, the municipal corporation (MC) committee headed by mayor Balkar Sandhu, will now visit Gurugram (Gurgaon) to study the waste management model there.

The MC has been facing flak over its apathy in dealing with the solid waste in the city (HT File)

Returning from Chennai, the MC committee stated that the management model in Chennai is different from what was proposed for the city.

While the MC has proposed to deploy three different contractors for door-to-door lifting, shifting of garbage to the main dump, and processing of waste at the dumpsite, only one contractor has been deployed for all the works in Chennai. Also, waste processing is not being done in Chennai as of now.

Apart from Sandhu, senior deputy mayor Sham Sundar Malhotra, MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal, councillors Jai Prakash, Sunny Bhalla and Yashpal Chaudhary; secretary Jasdev Sekhon, superintending engineers Rahul Gagneja and Rajinder Singh; nodal officer (health branch) Ashwani Sahota and Harpal Aujla were part of the committee, that went for a five-day visit to Chennai last week and returned on Sunday.

Malhotra said they were mainly looking for a company to process the 1,100 tonnes of solid waste which is generated in the city daily. But the processing plant was not yet made functional by the company deployed in Chennai. The committee however appreciated the use of e-rickshaws for the door-to-door lifting of garbage, and installation of static compactors to stop open dumping of garbage, among other practices.

Malhotra said that the scope of work in Chennai was bigger as around 5,500 tonnes of garbage is generated daily there. They have deployed around 3,000 e-rickshaws for the door-to-door lifting of garbage, and 38 road sweeping machines, which require a lot of funds. Their project cost is around ₹1,200 crore.

Mayor Sandhu said, “MC will study different models before finalising the pattern for the city. The tender which was earlier floated to finalise a contractor for shifting of garbage from secondary dump points to the main dumpsite has been put on hold for now. A team will now visit Gurugram to study the waste processing model there.”

The MC has been facing flak over its apathy in dealing with the solid waste in the city. The monitoring committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had also recently directed the PPCB to impose a penalty on the civic body for its failure to deal with over 16 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste accumulated at the main dumpsite at Tajpur road. Over 1,100 metric tonnes of garbage, which is generated in the city daily, is getting added to the legacy waste due to MC’s failure to deal with the issue. The residents have also been raising hue and cry over the open dumping of garbage at different points in the city.