Chennai Corporation’s proposal on waste collection, segregation and disposal “without bins and transfer stations” is set to be shelved, reportedly owing to unwillingness of the officials to make a decision involving a high risk. The civic body has decided to call off the bid to finalise a new private conservancy operator for Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Perungudi and Sholinganallur zones, reluctant to make a decision on a quote as high as Rs. 2,700 per tonne of waste collection.
Corporation is planning to reduce the cost of conservancy by shelving the proposal for a binless system that promotes source segregation and door-to-door collection, but has been distributing pamphlets to residents on source segregation.
“Workers have not collected waste door-to-door and done source segregation in most of the areas of Ambattur,” said P.V. Tamil Selvan, Corporation councillor. A group of 10,000 temporary workers as well as the 9,300 permanent conservancy workers have so far been unable to promote and sustain door-to-door collections, say officials. The existing charges for private conservancy are Rs.1,695 per tonne in areas like Teynampet, Kodambakkam and Adyar. According to corporation sources, the rate quoted was acceptable, taking into consideration the labour market conditions and technological requirements for a cleaner city. But the fee paid currently to existing private conservancy operator is 62.5 percent of the highest quote made by the shortlisted private operators. Concerned about possible audit objections, the corporation officials reportedly made a decision to not take a risk of bringing in conservancy operators even after the quotes were found to be acceptable on technical evaluation, sources said.
During the pre-bid meetings held with nine companies last year, corporation officials had focussed on door-to-door collection of garbage, source segregation, increase in number of vehicles and workers. The operator was expected to collect 800 tonnes of municipal solid waste from the four zones. The waste would be taken directly to the disposal point.
