App to improve waste handling in Noida

NOIDA: The Noida authority has developed a mobile application that will assist its health department to monitor the door-to-door waste collection work in the city.

NOIDA: The Noida authority has developed a mobile application that will assist its health department to monitor the door-to-door waste collection work in the city. The move is aimed at ensuring the waste is collected from each household properly and bringing in more transparency in the system, officials said.

HT Image

According to the officials, the application will help keep a tab on the work of the agency engaged in the waste collection in the city. The authority aims to improve the waste handling as it wants to score better in the Swachh Survekshan than this year when Noida was adjudged the 25th cleanest city with a population between one and 10 lakh in the country.

“Our motive is to collect waste daily from each house. And the mobile application will enable us to understand the gaps if there is any. The application will help us in improving the system for better results,” said Ritu Maheshwari, chief executive officer, Noida authority.

A private agency hired by the authority collects the waste from at least 165 sectors and 65 villages from across the city. The agency also transports the waste to the landfill site in Sector 145 for remediation. Residents in some areas keep complaining to the authority’s health department that the waste collection needs improvement.

Each person involved in the waste collection will use this application, and it will be monitored from a control room set up in Sector 58, the officials said, adding that once the garbage is picked up from a particular location, the site will turn green from red immediately.

“The application will also show the time, when the garbage is picked up from a location or house,” said Mishra.

As per official data, Noida produces 900 metric tonne of waste daily. In 2018, the Noida authority started collecting waste from door to door with the help of 250 vehicles and 21 compact machines that crushes the waste to transport it easily.

Residential bodies said that residents should be allowed to give feedback through the new app. “The Noida authority should make some changes in the mobile application and modify it so that residents can also download it to give feedback or file a complaint about garbage issue,” said NP Singh, president of Gautam Budh Nagar District Development Residents’ Welfare Association (DDRWA), an umbrella body of RWAs.