Civic body plans to lift garbage only at night

Mumbaiites will soon be saved the nauseating odour of garbage vehicles stuck in traffic next to theirs during the day. The civic body has planned to start lifting and transporting garbage at night in order to increase the efficiency of garbage trucks, whose trips are reduced due to the city’s inherent traffic jams.

Mumbaiites will soon be saved the nauseating odour of garbage vehicles stuck in traffic next to theirs during the day. The civic body has planned to start lifting and transporting garbage at night in order to increase the efficiency of garbage trucks, whose trips are reduced due to the city’s inherent traffic jams.

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Currently, the civic Solid Waste Management (SWM) department collects garbage in the daytime, up to 10pm.

The city generates 6,500 metric tonnes of organic and inorganic waste daily. The BMC spends over Rs 250 crore a year for garbage collection and disposal. There are 6,300 garbage collection points in the city and its suburbs and about 1,200 vehicles collect and transport waste to dumping grounds. Over 27,000 conservancy workers and contractors lift the garbage and deposit it at Deonar and Mulund dumpling grounds. The Deonar dumping ground takes 70% of the total waste.

Most of the time garbage dumpers get stuck in traffic, causing delays in collection and reduction in the number of trips.

Development and infrastructure work is also one of the reasons for traffic jams, delaying garbage vehicles. To overcome this problem, the department has decided to collect waste at night, when dumpers can drive smoothly to the dumping ground. “We have planned to collect garbage at night and early morning,” Bhalchandra Patil, chief engineer, SWM, said.

The proposal will soon be tabled before the civic Standing Committee. “We request the cooperation of residents. If we start lifting garbage at night, there will be some noise that is likely to disturb residents. At the moment, we will implement this on major roads first,” Patil said.

We will implement this in Andheri and Dahisar first as these areas are known to have heavy traffic in the daytime,” Patil said. Rahul Shewale, chairman of the standing committee said, “We will let the committee members decide on the new scheme.”