KOCHI: Though majority of the trucks owned by Kochi corporation stay off the roads and the local body spends around Rs 4 to 5 crore a year on hiring private trucks, the local body shells out huge amounts for the repair of the trucks it purchased for transporting garbage Repair bills of many of the trucks come to more than Rs 1 lakh each.Moreover, the fuel bill of vehicles which is normally used for mosquito eradication works during May 2018 to January 2019 comes to around Rs 16 lakh.Interestingly, it was only after the councillors raised protests against the apathetic attitude of the corporation authorities in carrying out vector control measures that the local body started doing something towards the direction. Of the nine auto carrier fogging/power spraying vehicles, four are at the workshop for the past several months.“Repair of vehicles like trucks is expensive. Also, vehicles are being given to repair works after engineers concerned inspect the vehicles and work out the cost,” said deputy mayor T J Vinod.Of the 13 refuse compactor trucks, eight have been in the workshop for the past few months. Still, the annual maintenance cost (AMC) given to a private firm is Rs 80 lakh. This means, the amount being spent on AMC of a refuse compactor truck is around Rs 8 lakh.The corporation owns 46 mini high lift Ape four-wheelers (a small vehicle which can be included under the category of autorickshaws). Of these, 29 vehicles have been in the workshop for the past several months. This is despite the fact that the local body spent Rs 8.85 lakh for conducting repair works prior to the annual fitness test.Yet, the local body has spent Rs 5.35 lakhs for the repair works prior to annual fitness tests of 16 high lift Ape four-wheelers.It was in 2011 that an Innova Car for the mayor was purchased. The car was disposed in 2018 and in the seven years, the local body shelled out Rs 7 lakh as maintenance charges. It means, an average of Rs 1 lakh was spent on repair of the car every year.All the three MUVs allotted to junior health inspectors (JHIs) in charge of the solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram have been in the garage for long. Interestingly, contracts for repairing many of the trucks owned by the local body were won by some of the private firms, which supply trucks for the movement of waste.“The trucks owned by the corporation are being maintained poorly. The trucks which transport garbage are not being cleaned daily. So, many of the workshop owners are not ready to undertake the repair works of the corporation’s trucks,” said corporation’s LDF parliamentary party secretary V P Chandran.The corporation had plans to set up a workshop at Brahmapuram for repairing the vehicles owned by the local body. But the plan remains on paper, while the trucks and other vehicles are being repaired at private workshops paying high bills.

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