Even as door-to-door collection of solid waste under a new contract system in the city is picking up, a system of monitoring all vehicles engaged in solid waste management through global positioning system (GPS) devices will be in place at the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) soon.
Sources in the corporation told The Hindu that monitoring such vehicles through GPS was not new. Earlier, only vehicles that transported waste from the city to the compost plant at Pachchanady had been fitted with GPS devices. There were 31 such vehicles. Now all tippers collecting waste from doorsteps and compactors that transported them to Pachchanady are GPS-enabled.
Haridas Saliyan, Project Head, Antony Waste Handling Cell Pvt. Ltd., the company collecting the waste now, said that 55 tippers and 16 compactors have been fitted with GPS devices. It was using 15 old vehicles without GPS devices for collecting waste from houses. They would soon be replaced with new tippers, which would have GPS devices.
Under the contract term it was not mandatory to fit GPS equipment to tippers. It was mandatory only for compactors. But the company has fitted them to tippers as well, to ensure a transparent system.
A computer would be set up in the corporation office to monitor the movement of vehicles so that complaints could be verified. Later it could be linked to the website of the corporation to make it available for public perusal.
Sources in the health section in the MCC said the GPS monitoring system was likely to be in place within a week. The corporation is also considering linking the data to the website.
They said that earlier the corporation was managing the GPS monitoring centre by collecting money from contractors, as multiple contract system in packages was in place. Now it would be the responsibility of the new company.
Mr. Saliyan said the tippers would be fitted with microphones for creating awareness on door-to-door collection and segregation of waste at source. An audio recording would be played when tippers went on rounds collecting the waste from houses. In addition, handbills would be distributed — 1.60 lakh handbills printed were ready for distribution.
He said as per the terms of contract, the company would have to achieve 70 per cent door-to-door collection at the end of first three months.
J.R. Lobo, Mangaluru City South MLA, said that it would take about six months for the new solid waste management system to be streamlined.
