NMC seeks to abandon bin-free city concept Staff Reporter : The new plan is slated for discussion in general body meeting scheduled for June 22 Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) working pattern is akin to one step forward and two steps backward. In sort of candid admission about failure of concept of bin-free city the civic administration has proposed reverting to old system of garbage collection. Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department provided intimation to city fathers about going ahead with purchase bins with stand and floor mounted bins with wheels these used to be placed in corners of various localities which indicates switching back to time tested mechanism. The proposal is listed for discussion in the ensuing meeting of NMC House slated for June 22. PHE mentioned major changes in the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Swachh Bharat Mission that was previously approved by House and later by State Government with outlay of Rs 308 crore. The High Powered Committee (HPC) approved the proposal of NMC but since available finance was just Rs 288.68 crore and hence State approved viability gap funding to tune of Rs 96.22 crore. Since NMC has received the funding the approval of House is necessary to carry out modification wherein primary storage and collection system outlay is pruned from Rs 4.26 crore to Rs 1.45 crore street sweeping from Rs 20.72 to Rs 1.83 crore. However earlier for collection and transportation no cost was mention and in revised proposal same is mentioned at Rs 143.25 crore. Similarly under Waste Treatment and Processing for composting plant with capacity of 200 MTPD now cost is pegged at Rs 6 crore. Also construction of and demolition of waste treatment plant at Rs 16.65 crore is also listed while earlier Rs 21 crore was allocated. During discussion on solid waste management it was feared that citizens might protest while reintroducing the bins particularly the big ones in which sweepers used to dump waste collected from door to door. The meeting chaired by Principal Secretary Urban Development Department suggested to civic officials to go for establishment of Material Recovery Facility (MRF) using SCADA technology. For the same NMC has now proposed purchasing 1000 litter bins (twin bins) floor mounted with stand at cost of Rs 1.25 crore about 250 garbage bins of 240 litres capacity (rectangular shape with wheels) at cost of Rs 2 crore. That NMC has to revert back to old system of collecting garbage in bins and then transporting them to Bhandewadi Dumping Yard is a major turn around in the solid waste management policy. A few years back these bins were placed across city and reason given that time was that it would help in avoiding litter on streets. However the apathy of civic body to ensure timely emptying of these bins resulted in poor response from citizens. Later successive administrators at NMC floated the concept of bin-free city saying it would improve the aesthetic element in city. Bio-Gas to Bio-CNG plant to come up at Bhandewadi dumping yard As waste to energy project failed to take off now Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has come up with a proposal of Bio-Gas to Bio-CNG Decentralised MRF MRF & RDF Centralised plant at Bhandewadi dumping yard. As per officials of PHE the plant will have capacity of 200 MTPD and will have green waste processor at garden. The same plant is also part of Swachh Bharat DPR and included in total project cost of Rs 266.63 crore that was granted approval by High Powered Committee of State Government on February 2021. The cost of 150 MTPD construction and demolition waste treatment plant is Rs 16.65 crore. For MRF and RFD centralised plant at Bhandewadi with capacity of 380 MTPD the project cost is calculated at Rs 13 crore. However for composting plant with capacity of 600 MTPD the cost is Rs 19.65 crore. Thrust would be on information and communication technology (ICT) for the infrastructure in Bhandewadi for which a sum of Rs 10 crore is envisaged. A special sum of Rs five crore is kept aside for information education and communication.

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