Standard garbage bins are rubbish; the way down is the way forward for solid waste management in Patna.

The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), as part of its smart city push, has prepared a sanitation plan in which underground bins will be installed on roads.

The plan lays stress on solid waste management, right from collection of garbage to transportation and treatment.

PMC commissioner Abhishek Singh said: "These underground bins having sensor-based inbuilt technology will be put up at different locations in the city with inlets above the ground. The bins will be monitored online so that the corporation is informed about when the bins are full and have to be emptied."

A private company will be hired for the project's execution, Singh added.

A PMC official said every bin will cover a surrounding area of half-a-kilometre from where the waste will be dumped. He said: "Most of the sites are being planned to be selected at crowded places like parks, railway stations, bus stands and others where heaps of waste used to accumulate on a daily basis. The waste will be collected in a systematic manner and carried away in trucks to a solid waste management plant that is proposed to come up at Bairiya in Sampatchak."

He added: "This is a system of compaction where from an underground endpoint, the compacted output is taken away by trucks in tanker-like containers without any leakage or overflow of the waste."

The system can reduce overall operating costs by more than 30 per cent using less manpower, fewer vehicle movements and less energy consumption. The commissioner said: "Underground dustbins disposal system will dispose waste as per convenience and garbage will no longer lie scattered."

Last year, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had urged the Bihar government to segregate and ramp up waste collection in Patna. The CSE had stated that Bihar needs to improve waste collection and waste treatment as municipal solid waste generation in the state was projected to increase from 680 tonnes per day to 1,537 tonnes per day by 2030.

The Centre for Science and Environment has estimated that Bihar currently produces over 2,500 tonnes per day of solid waste, about 10,00,000 lakh annually. Of this, Patna alone accounts for 42 per cent, Bhagalpur 12per cent and Muzaffarpur 10 per cent. Of this huge quantity of waste, less than 50 per cent is formally collected. In addition, there is no processing or treatment of the collected waste and open dumping is the most preferred option for disposal, the Centre for Science and Environment had said.

Environment conservationist R.K. Sinha, also known as the Dolphin Man, said: "Patna is one of the worst cities in terms of solid waste management. One can see heaps of solid waste piled up on the banks of the Ganga here. Apart from the ecological cost, this is also a method to illegally reclaim land. Waste management is an issue where the onus is not only on the state and municipal authorities, but every household has to be part of this."