GHMC could soon act on its proposal to privatise the tertiary level garbage transportation, along with maintenance of its transfer stations in the city. Preparations are under way to identify locations for new transfer stations and hand them over to the private concessionaire all in a month, officials informed.
Tertiary level transportation represents shifting of garbage from transfer stations up to the Jawahar Nagar landfill maintained by Hyderabad Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Limited (HIMSW), a special purpose vehicle launched by the concessionaire Ramky Enviro Engineers, under public-private-partnership for solid waste management in city.
As of now, the tertiary level garbage transfer is with the GHMC, though almost all the vehicles engaged in the activity are hired from private agencies.
Senior GHMC officials on condition of anonymity informed that the hired vehicles may be discontinued soon, and the garbage transfer too may be handed over to HIMSW, in partial fulfilment of the agreement signed for municipal solid waste management.
The concessionaire may hire the same vehicles, or opt to change the agencies, till own modernised vehicles are acquired to carry the garbage.
Besides, half of the garbage transfer stations being maintained by GHMC presently will be handed over to the concessionaire.
There are 17 transfer stations at various locations across the city, where the auto-trolleys engaged in door to door collection dump the garbage. Garbage from dumper bins and other commercial localities too is brought to the transfer stations, to be lifted and transported to the landfill, where it is finally processed.
GHMC Commissioner D.S.Lokesh Kumar has recently announced that sites will be identified for setting up 60 more transfer stations in the city.
“Already, 25 sites have been identified, where transfer stations will be set up, and handed over to the concessionaire. Garbage compaction will take place at the sites, before it is transferred to Jawahar Nagar,” the official said.
GHMC’s 2009 agreement with HIMSW for solid waste management includes all components of garbage disposal including primary collection from households, source segregation with community participation, secondary level collection and transportation up to transfer stations, and tertiary collection and transportation up to the landfill, apart from maintenance of transfer stations, processing, composting, leachate treatment and securing of landfill.
However, the agreement could not be implemented in full, owing to the agitations by workers’ unions against the move. Only processing was handed over to the HIMSW, while GHMC has been taking care of primary, secondary and tertiary collection and transportation of waste.
Government had in 2017 issued orders giving a green signal for GHMC’s proposal to hand over the transfer station management and tertiary transportation to the concessionaire in a phased manner.
