The solid waste management project caught in red tape has triggered the possibility of heaps of garbage greeting revellers on Holi.

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), in the meeting of its empowered standing committee on Monday, took a decision to coordinate with Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo) to procure six categories of sanitation equipment.

On September 3 last year, the committee had decided to issue work order to procure equipment, including 1,950 public bins, 21 compactors, four jetting and suction machines and 10 JCB machines.

However, the urban development and housing department, through a notification dated November 19 last year, declared BUIDCo as the state procurement agency for the equipment under solid waste management projects for all urban local bodies. Accordingly, PMC was asked to coordinate with BUIDCo for finalisation of rates at which the equipment would be procured. 'It was decided during the meeting on Monday that the rates to procure the sanitation equipment should be finalised at the earliest and the corresponding work order should be issued without further delay,' said mayor Afzal Imam.

Residents would also have to continue waiting for door-to-door waste collection scheme to start in the city, as the tenders for the same are going to be floated afresh. Tenders for more public bins, small waste collection equipment and six other categories of sanitation equipment have also been decided to be floated afresh.

In January 2008, the urban development and housing department released Rs 23.09 crore, including one-fourth of the central government's total share, amounting to Rs 4.62 crore and the state government's share of Rs 18.47 crore, for this project.

On July 14 last year, the procurement committee of PMC recommended the purchase of six categories of sanitation equipment, including 2,000 sanitation equipment, and floated fresh tenders for another eight categories of equipment under the waste management project.

Apart from sanitation equipment, several attempts to execute the door-to-door waste collection schemes last year failed. Though the PMC board had given its approval to the door-to-door waste collection in September last year, the corresponding bidding process failed owing to lack of interest from bidders.

Apart from the solid waste management project, the empowered standing committee in its meeting held on Monday under the chairmanship of mayor Afzal Imam took a decision to procure eight vehicle-mounted fogging machines to control the mosquito menace.