The Hindu
Mangalore, Dec 28: The solid waste management in the city is expected to change for the better with the State Government approving the proposal of the Mangalore City Corporation.
According to it, three contract agencies will handle the solid waste management in the jurisdiction of the civic body in three packages. The focus of the new proposal is on strengthening the door-to-door collection of solid waste.
Zones
The 60 wards in the corporation will be divided as north and south zones. The north zone will have 29 wards in one package and south zone will have 31 wards in another package.
The agencies, which secure the contract of each package, will have to do the door-to-door collection of waste fully. Now, it is not being done fully in the city.
In addition, the successful bidder will have to undertake street sweeping, vegetation cutting, road divider cleaning and other sanitary works. They will have to transport the waste collected to the solid waste compost plant and dumping yard at Pachchanady.
The third package covers operation and maintenance of compost plant and sanitary land-fill site at Panchchanady.
R. Manjunatha Shetty, Environment Engineer at the corporation, told The Hindu that the civic body had prepared the tender documents and forwarded them to the Directorate of Municipal Administration for approval after the Government approved the three-package proposal in the first week of this month. He was hopeful of getting the approval shortly.
Later, the civic body will have to invite bids for selecting the three contract agencies. The entire process might take four to six months, he said.
Mr. Shetty, who was instrumental in drawing the new proposal and preparing the tender documents, said that now six contract agencies had been awarded the management of solid waste in six packages. The contract term of these agencies will expire in July, 2010. Earlier, there were nine packages. Hence, the corporation was finding it difficult to ensure cent per cent implementation of door-to-door collection. When the new proposal is implemented, there will be only two agencies for door-to-door collection and it will be easy to make them implement the door-to-door collection fully. He said that once the bidders were selected, the corporation would launch a campaign to create a public awareness on the door-to-door collection and seek people’s cooperation in making it a success.
Mr. Shetty said that the new package covered mechanised sweeping of roads in the south zone.
It included heart of the city such as Hampankatta, Pandeshwar, Bendoorwell, Bejai and the like, where concrete roads are being laid.
The north zone package covered cleaning of the beaches at Surathkal, Mukka, Tannirbavi and Kasba Bengre.
The city has 120 metallic solid waste bins now. Vehicles fitted with hydraulic lifting equipment are transporting the solid waste to the dumping yard. This practice will continue in the new package. Once the door-to-door collection of solid waste picked up, cement bins in the city will be removed.
He said that if the civic body could select the bidders for the new package before July next, the services of the existing contractors, who are now handling the solid waste under six package-scheme, could be discontinued by giving them a month’s notice. There was no need to wait for implementing the three-package system till July next, he said.