The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) spends more than double the amount on garbage shifting through its own trucks, compared to the private vehicles engaged for doing the same. As per a statement issued by the Corporation on Saturday, the expenditure incurred on transport of a tonne of garbage in their own vehicles by permanent employees, including drivers and workers, works out to ₹1020. However, the expenditure for the same in private vehicles is ₹480 per tonne. Officials admit that it is achieved mostly by economising on drivers’ salaries.
Talking about reforms undertaken since last year, the statement from GHMC mentioned that de-commissioning of obsolete vehicles, increasing internal efficiency, decentralisation of power, using vehicles 24X7, and purchase of diesel directly from the oil companies were some of the measures that have reduced the costs considerably.
GHMC is employing a total of 494 vehicles for transport of garbage, of which 260 are their own, and the rest hired. Earlier, the corporation owned 773 vehicles, of which 276 old vehicles were decided to be condemned. So far, 187 vehicles have been auctioned, and 85 were sold. So as not to resort to removal of any driver from services, the corporation has been running the vehicles in three shifts, the statement said. Presently, a total of 977 drivers and 1537 workers are employed with the GHMC.
The Corporation’s decision to decentralise the monitoring and control of the transport wing to the Zonal Commissioners concerned has paid off well, the statement said.
Dodging history
It may be remembered that a major scam was unearthed in the GHMC Transport wing in 2010, regarding purchase of spare parts and repairs of the garbage transport vehicles from 2007-2009.
