BMC’s 6-cr litter bin plan delayed

Although clean-up marshals are all set to take to the streets to penalise those littering public places after a year-long gap, there may not be adequate dustbins across the city to throw your litter. Poorvi Kulkarni reports.

Although clean-up marshals are all set to take to the streets to penalise those littering public places after a year-long gap, there may not be adequate dustbins across the city to throw your litter.

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More than a year after the Rs 6-crore plan to install litter bins in the city was mooted, it is yet to be executed as the BMC has received only one bid for two of the four designs shortlisted.

The civic body had called for tenders to procure and install these bins by May 1. However, the BMC received only one bid each for two designs and two bids each for the other two.

“The tender specification stated that we needed bins with a 40-litre capacity. It is difficult to find manufacturers for these, as most bins have a capacity of 50 litres. The mould for glass- and fibre-reinforced bins is made for bin with a 50-litre capacity,” said an official from the department of solid waste management.

While technical difficulties may have delayed the procurement of dustbins, the BMC is yet to complete its survey to earmark locations to install them.

However, critics said this was a reflection of how the civic body fails to provide even basic facilities. “The functioning of the civic administration has been reduced to mockery, since it cannot even provide decent dustbins for citizens,” said Rais Shaikh, a Samajwadi Party group leader in the BMC.