QUEEN'S ROAD: Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), a major bulk garbage generator in the city, will now adopt the Magnetic Thermal Waste Disposal System. With 41 depots, two workshops and a number of offices in the city, BMTC generates an average of 4,000 kg of waste every day.
Ever since a garbage crisis erupted in Bengaluru, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been continuously monitored by the Karnataka High Court. The BBMP issued a notification to the domestic bulk generators two years ago. Now, the Palike is tackling the other bulk generators, and has instructed the BMTC to make arrangements to dispose of waste by itself, a senior BMTC official told City Express.
The BMTC has now called for a tender from private companies to install a Magnetic Thermal Waste Disposal Machine at its central workshop in Shanthinagar. The official explained that the machine would sift through all kinds of waste, except iron and glass pieces. "The waste will be burnt and reduced into smaller granules. If we put in 10 tones of waste, the thermal process will reduce it to three kg of granules, which can be used for asphalting," the official explained.
The BMTC has time till the end of March to get the system in place. "We have already called for tenders and by the end of February, we shall finalise the bidder," the official said.
The system could be used to segregate the waste and then burn it or burn it all together.
Speaking to City Express, BBMP Special Commissioner Darpan Jain said that they had called a meeting with some of the major bulk garbage generators from the government, including the BMTC, KSRTC, Railways, Defence and BESCOM. "We had asked them to submit their plan for disposing the waste that they generate. The BMTC is a major bulk generator with a floating population and numerous bus stops. If they make arrangements to dispose their own waste, the burden on the BBMP will be reduced. At present, the BBMP staff are picking up waste from these places," he added.