TIRUCHY: Five months after announcing its plans to instal GPS system in garbage collection vehicles, senior officials at the city corporation said the project has been put on hold, citing technical and administrative issues. The corporation had made the announcement in July in order to monitor the movement of its garbage collection vehicles. It was planned to instal GPS in about 500 vehicles.
"We currently have GPS systems in all our decanting vehicles. When the decision was made to instal GPS in garbage collection trucks, we instructed our software developers to ensure that the GPS monitoring of both can be undertaken in the same platform. This will take some time," a senior official said.
The government has also cited its recent decision to outsource sanitation and other ground-level works to private players or self-help groups (SHGs) as another reason to put on the GPS project on hold. "With the operation of micro-compost centres and garbage collection likely to go to private players or SHGs in the near future, our officers will not have to monitor the movement of garbage collection vehicles. Private players conducting such works have to ensure it.
Therefore, we have decided to put our plan to instal GPS on hold," a senior officer requesting anonymity said. Sources said that the corporation is likely to go ahead with plan to instal the GPS if it gets some direction from the municipal administration department or the corporation council. "In the current situation, there is no need to put on fast track the installation of GPS.
But if the corporation council or municipal administration department comes up with such a direction, the corporation is likely to do it. Further, the corporation is already planning to come up with a garbage collection schedule for each street. Since such a plan is also in the pipeline, many of us found that there is no immediate need for installing GPS in garbage collection vehicles," an officer said.