Prem Kumar

This summer, Bihar is hardly interested in replicating anything of Gujarat.

Or so it appears from the latest directive of the urban development and housing department minister Prem Kumar, a BJP leader, who has asked officials of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) to postpone their proposed visit to cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat to study their solid waste management practices.

Prem told The Telegraph on Sunday: “It is summer now. The officers are needed in the city for ensuring smooth water supply to the residents. Keeping this in mind, I have asked the civic body to postpone the tour by a few months and let them go during monsoon.”

A team of seven senior PMC officials was scheduled to depart on Sunday for a seven-day tour of the three cities in Gujarat but sources claimed that the minister called off the plan on Friday.

The minister, however, does not seem to have completely negated the NaMO model as he claimed that he would invite companies to give presentation on models practised in Gujarat and other states.

“To save time, I have asked the officials in the department to invite companies based in Gujarat and Maharashtra to give presentation on the practices of solid waste management they follow,” said Prem.

Elucidating the reason behind the now postponed tour of cities in Gujarat, a senior PMC official said: “The solid waste management models of the three cities in Gujarat are considered to be the best in the country. As the civic body is to undertake the solid waste management project in the city sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), it was decided to study such models first. The team was supposed to stay in Ahmedabad for three days and Surat and Vadodara for two days each. On the basis of the study, we were to formulate a plan of action for commencing execution on the project.”

According to estimates of the civic body, the per capita per day solid waste generation in Patna is 0.5kg. So, the total waste generation stands at a whopping 750 tonnes and above.

The scientific disposal of garbage is to be done through integrated solid waste management project of Patna, which envisages door-to-door collection and treatment at an integrated solid waste management facility at Bairiya village with a capacity to treat 800 to 1,500 tonnes of solid waste everyday.

Around two months have elapsed since the urban development and housing department transferred this project from Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation to PMC but the corresponding tenders have not yet been issued.

Civic officials have claimed that the plans for studying the Gujarat model having been cancelled and the fresh approach to execute the project is uncertain now.

“Though the project has the approval of the PMC board and the standing committee, no steps have been taken regarding floating tenders for procurement of equipment and other aspects of this project. With the Gujarat tour being cancelled, any fresh plan of action is yet to be formulated,” said the PMC official.