The Coimbatore Corporation has discovered that the actual diesel consumption in lorries carrying waste to Vellalore is less than what it is being billed for. The civic body made the discovery when it carried a trial run fixing vehicle tracking devices on a few lorries.
Sources privy to the operation say that while the billing has touched 30 litres a day a lorry, the trial run has shown that the actual consumption is almost half – around 15 litres a day a lorry. The Corporation carried out the trial run by fixing the tracking devices on five lorries – one each a zone – under the Central Government’s Swachh Bharat scheme.
Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan says that he’s yet to see the report on the result of the trial run exercise. But he is certain that there will be reduction in diesel consumption if the civic body starts monitoring the vehicle movement.
The sources say that the savings will be massive given the fact that the Corporation alone operates close to 200 lorries a day moving nearly 800 tonnes waste to Vellalore. If each lorry’s diesel consumption were to come down from 30 litres to around 15 litres a day, the expenditure will also get halved.
The Corporation started off the vehicle tracking exercise by entering into an agreement with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. The latter will provide the SIM and also the tracking equipment. The Corporation will monitor the vehicle movement at its main office in Town Hall.
If the Corporation were to fix the tracking device on all its lorries, save on diesel and tighten the purse, it will be doing so at a time when it is finding it difficult to pay contractors for works that were executed months ago.
