Cuttack, Aug. 8: The municipal corporation has adopted the Swachh Bharat Mission's recommendations in its terms for outsourcing municipal solid waste collection.
Municipal commissioner Bikash Mohapatra told The Telegraph today that the municipal council in its August 18 meeting would make the terms applicable for selection of a private operator.
"The terms set for outsourcing of sweeping, collection, storage, segregation, transportation, composting and disposal of municipal solid waste at the existing landfill site is aimed at achieving the requirements of Swachh Bharat Mission and its service level benchmark," Mohapatra said.
There are more than 1.20 lakh households with nearly 6.3 lakh population in the municipal area that is spread over 152sqkm.
Around 400 tonnes of municipal waste is generated by the city every day. But civic officials conceded that around a 100 tonnes are left uncollected as waste collection - both from door-to-door and collection points -is not well organised.
"We have taken care to set the terms under which the operator who gets the contract will provide number of community bins and roadside bins in all the 59 wards on the basis of quantity of waste generated and the population density, following the Swachh Bharat Mission recommendations," said Mohapatra.
The roadside bins and community bins are required for the purpose of temporary storage of municipal solid waste and arrangement for mechanical transportation to the transfer station.
Official sources said as part of the terms set for outsourcing solid waste management, the civic body has pegged the number of bins at one for every 100 people.
Less than 600 bins have been provided across the 59 wards by the private operator, which is collecting municipal solid waste on a monthly contract basis, sources said.
The terms also include engagement of 28 persons (22 sweepers and six coolies) for every 10,000 population and two persons for collection for every 200-300 houses.
"Management of municipal solid waste is a challenge because of the rising population. As it is gradually becoming a bigger problem for the city, we are desperately trying to implement our Solid Waste Management Project conforming to the recommendations of Swachh Bharat Mission," said Ranjan Kumar Biswal, chairman of the corporation's standing committee for sanitation.
After a five-year contract with Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited of Hyderabad for municipal solid waste collection expired in April 2016, the civic body has allowed the private operator to continue as an interim arrangement on a monthly contract basis because it has not been able to award fresh contract owing to legal dispute over process of finalising the tender.
Orissa High Court had on July 18 quashed the provisions in the tender relating to financial eligibility criteria for participating bidders and directed the civic body to invite fresh tenders.
"The draft for fresh tenders is ready in compliance of the high court order. Bidders will be invited after it is approved by the municipal council," the municipal commissioner said. "We target to complete the selection process within three months."
Telenga Bazar resident Pradip Sahu said: "Much depends on how the authorities are able to actually implement the Swachh Bharat Mission recommendations."
