The Coimbatore Corporation could go in for an overhaul of the solid waste management system.
According to sources, the overhaul would be the result of its simmering feud with the Coimbatore Integrated Waste Management Company Limited, which manages the second collection and waste processing in the Vellalore yard.
The Corporation has been accusing the company of not fulfilling the contractual obligations – not processing the waste, not producing compost out of degradable organic waste and failing in scientific closure of waste. The company on the other has said that it is the Corporation that has failed in supplying waste in a segregated fashion.
Based on the accusation and charges, the Corporation has not been paying money to the company since October 2014. And, the company has been claiming the same.
Sources said that the company’s performance, escalating transportation cost and the problems associated in managing the waste in Vellalore, has forced the Corporation to go in for an overhaul, which could, possibly, involve terminating the contract with the company.
But that might not happen until the Corporation puts in a place an alternative arrangement, the sources said and pointed out that the Corporation’s plans to segregate and process recyclable waste at 16 centres in the city was part of the overhaul.
This thinking comes at a time when the civic body is in the midst of attempting a Guinness World Record on litter collection and a clean cities championship contest for maximum segregation.
The Coimbatore Corporation had implemented the solid waste management scheme at over Rs. 100 crore under the Central Government-funded Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. It had built three transit stations, where waste from the primary collection system (door to door collection) would be compacted and transported in lorries to the Vellalore yard.
Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan refused to comment, though. And, the company officials were not available for comment.
