Navi Mumbai: Cidco agrees to collect garbage from Panvel till March 15

The standoff between the civic body and the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) was resolved on Friday.

The piled-up garbage at nodes under Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will soon be cleared.

Picture for representation

The standoff between the civic body and the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) was resolved on Friday.

Cidco has been giving deadlines to the PCMC to take over garbage collection in the nodes. But the civic body has been asking for more time to take up the huge responsibility, saying it was not financially strong.

The planning agency’s latest deadline was January 31 but the PCMC again asked for an extension.

Cidco said it would continue to pick up garbage till March 15 as the central government has started Swachh Survey in Panvel.

“The national Swachh survey is underway and we believe it is Cidco’s duty to support such cleanliness campaign. We have agreed to pick up garbage from the nodes till March 15 when the Swachh survey will end. Thereafter, it will be PCMC’s responsibility,” said Mohan Ninawe, Senior public relations officer, Cidco.

Garbage from the nodal areas of Kharghar, Kalamboli, Kamothe, Taloja and New Panvel is picked up by Cidco. Around 350 metric tonnes of garbage is collected from the area daily.

Cidco’s stand is that garbage collection is the civic body’s responsibility while it will take charge of management of solid waste.

Stating that the issue had been resolved for now, PCMC deputy municipal commissioner Sandhya Bavankule said, “We have written to Cidco health officer BS Bavaskar, asking it to collect garbage. The central government has planned the Swachh survey till March 12. Since, we do not have our system in place, we have asked Cidco to continue with the responsibility till then.”

She added, “After municipal commissioner Sudhakar Shinde is back soon from his official tour, he will hold discussions with Cidco managing director Bhushan Gagrani and then the transfer modalities can be worked out.”