A more systematic way of handling waste in Mangalore will become a reality soon with the State government taking a decision in this regard. On Wednesday, it approved the second of the two bids for handling waste in three packages.
With this, one private company will handle two packages – collection and transport of solid waste from north zone (29 wards) and south zone (31 wards) – while another will handle operation and maintenance of sanitary landfill site and compost plant at Pachchanady.
Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) Commissioner Harish Kumar K. told The Hindu that the government had approved the bid of Antony Waste Handling Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, for collecting and transporting solid waste from north and south zones.
Mr. Kumar said that on August 23, it approved the bid of IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure and Services Ltd., Delhi, for operation and maintenance of the sanitary landfill site and the compost plant at Pachchanady.
Manjunath R Shetty, MCC Environment Engineer, who was instrumental in preparing the scheme, said that the bid quoted by the Mumbai-based company for north zone was above 87 per cent higher than the estimated cost (of the civic body) of 2010.
The company had quoted Rs. 7.95 crore as against the estimated cost of Rs. 4.25 crore per annum. The same company quoted 76 per cent more than the estimated cost of 2010 for collecting and transporting solid waste from south zone – Rs. 9.67 crore as against the estimated cost of Rs. 5.47 crore per annum.
But, Mr. Shetty said, when the estimated cost was revised for 2012, the rates quoted by the company would be up by 12 to 14 per cent.
The Delhi-based company had quoted Rs. 238 per tonne for operation and maintenance of the landfill site. The cost estimated by the corporation was Rs. 248 per tonne. In this case, the company quoted four per cent less than the estimation, he said.
Mr. Kumar said that the Delhi-based company would start operation and maintenance at Pachchanady from December 10.
He said that the Mumbai-based company would take some time for collecting and transporting solid waste from the two zones as it had to prepare itself for deploying men and machines. Till then, the present eight contractors would collect waste.
Mr. Shetty said that under the scheme, it was mandatory to install global positioning system equipment in vehicles transporting solid waste from wards to the dumping yard at Pachchanady. The company selected would have to sweep streets, remove weeds and clean road dividers. Other features of the scheme were elimination of multiple handling of solid waste and compulsory cleaning of beaches at Surathkal, Mukka, Tannirbavi, and Kasba Bengre.
The proposal was mooted in January 2010. On February 15, 2012, the civic body sent a list of two bidders selected for handling solid waste in the city in three packages for approval.
