BHUBANESWAR: Unable to complete projects within deadline, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now in a fix over waste management projects which stand derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.
At least 17 Micro Composting Centres (MCCs) were supposed to be set up by March but not a single facility could be made functional for treatment of wastes at ward level.
The civic body floated tender in August last year for setting up of 43 MCCs, each at an investment of Rs 38 lakh to Rs 52 lakh depending on their size and capacity.
In the first phase, 17 centres were supposed to be completed. The progress of the projects, however, lagged behind due to delay in identification of land and opposition from locals.
The facilities hit a major roadblock after lockdown was imposed in the Capital to check the spread of coronavirus.
Apart from the centres to manage wet waste, 10 material recovery centres were planned for disposal of dry waste all of which have failed to take off due to delay in completion of MCCs.
An official from the civic body said the door-to-door garbage collection project has also been affected due to lockdown. The civic body is left with no choice but to wait till the situation improves.
BMC Deputy Commissioner for Sanitation Subhendu Sahu said, “The project work will start after construction is allowed in a full-fledged manner. Currently, work in Bhubaneswar has been allowed with limited workers only.”
Sahu, however, said the door-to-door garbage collection and waste segregation work could be carried out easily from now onwards as containment zone tag has been removed from all the localities.