A worker collects garbage from a transit point at Unit-II in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 14: At the click of a mouse, officials at the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be able to tell whether garbage is being cleared from your neighbourhood dump at regular intervals or not.

By the end of this month, the BMC would have put in place an online monitoring system to streamline lifting of garbage in the city.

In the first phase, the civic authorities have decided to erect signboards displaying ward numbers and transit point numbers to make the process of online tracking easy. BMC deputy commissioner Krushna Prasad Pati said the corporation was ready to launch the system within the next two weeks.

“The online monitoring system will be implemented in all the 60 wards. Once the system is in operation, it will be easy to monitor the garbage-lifting process. It will also help us keep tabs on the people involved in garbage disposal,” said Pati.

BMC sources said an Andhra Pradesh-based company had been entrusted with the job. The online monitoring system includes keeping a tab on the vehicles being used to transport the solid waste from various transit points. There are 1,300 temporary transit points from which garbage is transported to six interim transit stations before being dumped at the Bhuasuni dumping yard on the outskirts of the city.

The signboards that will be erected will also help citizens identify the temporary transit points. “People often complain about the dumping of garbage at unauthorised places. With the signboards being set up, citizens will be able to identify the temporary transit points,” said city health officer Chandrika Prasad Das.

Councillor of ward No. 36 S.K. Nijamudin said putting up signboards at the temporary transit points would be helpful as the corporation will be able to monitor lifting of garbage from these points. “We have received several complaints in the past about garbage not being removed from the temporary transit points. Through the online monitoring system, we will be able to get a picture of the temporary transit points and take appropriate action against the persons responsible,” said Nijamudin.

Sources in the BMC said a cell phone with a camera would be provided to ward officers, councillors or sanitation officials engaged in this unique solid waste disposal drive. They will take photographs of solid waste lying at various places in the morning and pictures of the same spot again in the evening as proof of whether the waste has been removed. The photos would be uploaded on a central server located at the BMC office. Thus, monitoring officials will know the exact status of solid waste disposal in various parts of the city. Senior BMC officials said the mobile phones would use the global positioning system to pinpoint the exact spots where the waste lay in different wards.

“We have completed all the groundwork, including listing of sweepers. We have deployed nearly 40 persons at different wards to create a database of the entire process. By next month, we will run the system on a trail basis,” said a senior official of Varsun e-technologies, the Andhra Pradesh-based company that has been entrusted with the online monitoring system. The city generates 450 metric tonnes of solid waste every day.