BENGALURU: The Greater Bengaluru Authority plans to overhaul Bengaluru’s waste-management system by increasing waste transportation capacity to around 9,000 tonnes per day and introducing GPS tracking for all garbage-collection vehicles.
The move comes as the city generates around 6,500 tonnes of waste daily, against the existing collection capacity of about 5,200 tonnes.
Speaking at a stakeholder consultation on solid waste management on Thursday, Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said improving the system would require both government action and citizen participation.
The existing 27 Assembly constituency-based packages have been reorganised into 33 packages under the new system. Larger two- and three-tonne vehicles will be deployed, with around 4,500 vehicles expected to operate. GPS tracking will be made mandatory to monitor whether vehicles follow assigned routes and provide the required service.
The minister said the government’s responsibility was to ensure that garbage vehicles reached every doorstep, while citizens must segregate waste and hand it over to the collection vehicles rather than dumping it on roadsides.
Gowda also highlighted the role of around 50,000 bulk waste generators. According to him, only around 2,000 have entered into arrangements with authorised vendors, while bulk waste generators contribute nearly 1,000 tonnes of waste daily to the household collection system. He said bulk generators must comply with waste-management rules and process or compost waste at source wherever required.
The consultation also saw citizens and stakeholder groups put forward several suggestions. These included establishing ward-level waste infrastructure, decentralised processing facilities, dry-waste collection centres, wet-waste processing units and RRR centres. Participants also sought accurate ward-level data on waste generation and updated microplans based on actual waste quantities.
For better monitoring, participants suggested technology-based tracking of waste collection, stronger accountability for contractors and officials, and making contract and performance details accessible to citizens. They also proposed appointing paid citizen wardens who could act as a link between residents and the civic administration and help monitor waste-management issues.
Other suggestions included separate vehicles for street-sweeping waste, systems to weigh waste during collection, stronger grievance-redressal mechanisms and incentives for households following proper segregation practices.
The minister said around 2,100 tonnes of segregated wet waste is currently being sent to processing facilities, while waste sent to landfills has declined from around 4,000 tonnes to approximately 2,500 tonnes.
Gowda said around 1.42 lakh tonnes of construction and other waste had been cleared by the GBA, while the Bengaluru Development Authority had removed about 80,000 tonnes of old waste during the ‘Freedom from Waste’ campaign.
