ROURKELA: TO prevent spillage of waste at primary dumping sites, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) will soon install 37 underground bins, fitted with sensors, as an alternative to address the garbage disposal problem the city has been grappling with for long.
A tender for the project, expected to cost over Rs 2.5 crore, will be floated within a fortnight. The bins are likely to be functional in the next six months. The existing primary surface dumping sites receive waste from different sources and often spill over after they are filled to the brim.
The underground bins would be able to store both wet and dry wastes and the sensor technology would send an alert when it is full. The garbage lifting vehicles would then carry the waste to the micro-composting centres (MCCs).
Around Rs 120-130 tonne wet and dry waste is generated daily within the civic body limit. Failure to lift the heaps of waste from the dumping sites has emerged as a major problem in the city.
With the municipal solid waste treatment plant failing to take off and unscientific disposal of waste near the BPUT campus causing environmental concerns, the RMC has initiated a host of alternative measures to solve garbage disposal problem.
After the launch of advanced sanitation management programme by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on December 4, the RMC has deployed 44 battery operated vehicles and 15 light commercial vehicles for collection of waste from households and transporting them to the MCCs. Two LCVs are being used to transport waste from bulk generators to the MCCs.
With the seven newly constructed MCCs of RMC capable to process 35 tonne waste, the corporation recently roped in two startup companies for processing of surplus wet waste into manures and gainful recycling of dry waste including plastics.