A day after Vinayaka Chavithi, more than 650 metric tonnes (MT) of garbage was collected from the city on Saturday, which is more than what is collected on a normal day. The city usually generates 550 MT of garbage every day.
Heaps of green waste was seen piled up on roads, including Bandar and Eluru roads, in the city. The petty traders, who brought plantain trees, mango leaves, and patri –green leaves of various trees to sell in the city, strewn leftovers on the roadside.
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) had to utilise services of entire Public Health (PH) workers and DWCUA/CMEY groups to clear the garbage. The Corporation has a fleet of 4,239 sanitary workers, including DWCUA and CMEY groups, to put things back on track. There are about 800 permanent sanitary workers in the city. In addition, the department had to press additional tippers to restore normalcy. The VMC had made arrangements to ensure that the people would not face hardship, according to Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) P. Ratnavali.
The Corporation also pressed additional tippers from Friday night itself to keep the city clean.
Four mini tippers that can transport 20 MT of garbage and 5 big tippers that carry 5 dumper bins were used on Friday night. The garbage clearance continued till Saturday evening.
But, piles of garbage were left uncollected alongside the roads in many places. Heaps of garbage was seen on main roads like Bandar Road near Sub Collector’s office also.
The city generates nearly 500 tonnes of garbage daily. Of this, more than 300 tonnes is generated from households which come straight to the bins placed at vantage points in the city.
There are 243 dumper bins across the city wherein people dump their garbage.
