CHENNAI : The City Corporation hopes to make smelly overflowing dustbins on street corners a thing of the past. The civic body plans to equip dustbins with sensors that will detect garbage overflow and leaks in real time, and relay it to a designated monitoring centre. According to Corporation officials, overflowing bins are one of the most common complaints received by the control room and this move will help officials attend to such issues even before complaints are raised.
These sensors, which cost between Rs 5000 and Rs 10,000, will be Radio Frequency Identification-enabled (RFID) and tamper-proof, officials said.“This will ensure workers don’t slack off and increase accountability at all levels in the system,” said a senior official, adding that it will also help keep the streets cleaner and control the spread of vector-borne diseases.
However, officials in the Corporation said that the sensors will be implemented only after the privatisation of solid waste collection in eight more zones is finalised. Currently, only three of the fifteen zones have privatised solid waste collection. “Once the privatisation is finalised, the number of bins will be trimmed across zones and the sensors will be fitted,” said a senior Corporation official. Currently, there are over 3,500 bulk dustbins across the 15 Corporation zones.
Officials also indicated that a separate private player will be hired by the corporation to monitor the dustbin levels and conditions, as well as to collect data on garbage trends across zones. Initially, the corporation had planned to completely phase out the bulk dustbins to ensure comprehensive and effective source segregation of waste at homes and commercial establishments. However, officials told Express that making the city free of dustbins is not feasible in the near future.