ROURKELA: In a bid to improve the Steel City’s ranking in Swachh Survekshan 2021, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) is all set to switch over to mechanised cleaning and sanitation eco-system.
It is procuring a fleet of specialised vehicles and equipment to replace the time consuming and ineffective manual system of sanitation.
The civic body will engage a total of 81 vehicles including Hooper tipper dumpers, battery-operated vehicles for door-to-door garbage collection, vehicle-mounted vacuum litter pickers, mini-tippers with bin lifting hand cart discharging system along with other equipment with funding from Sundargarh district mineral foundation.
Besides, a truck-mounted vacuum assisted mechanised sweeper and one light commercial vehicle-mounted sweeping machine would be used on hiring basis for road cleaning. RMC is perennially faced with the problem of garbage collection and road sweeping while clogged drains are seldom cleaned. Before monsoon every year, `20-`25 lakh is spent on cleaning drains without any effective result.
For a population of around 3.2 lakh in 40 Wards, the RMC has 221 regular and 578 contractual workers for garbage collection and disposal, sweeping and drain cleaning. The city generates around 102 tonne of municipal solid waste daily. Sanitation of nine Wards has been privatised for the last nearly 13 years. But, these wards remain filthy despite the annual spending of around `1 crore on sanitation.
RMC commissioner and chief executive officer of Rourkela Smart City Ltd Dibyajyoti Parida said mechanised sanitation would lead to enhanced and effective performance and also save time.
He hoped that if sanitation issues on multiple fronts are addressed, the city would significantly improve its ranking in the national cleanliness ranking. Rourkela was placed 156th in the Swachh Survekshan 2020.