Bhubaneswar, Jan 28: Solid waste management will be on the top of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s agenda in the coming financial year.

The draft budget for 2013-14, which was tabled before the municipal council today, proposes to allocate Rs 45 crore for a better city. Last year, the allocation was Rs 26 crore.

Municipal commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra said: “A proposal to divide 53 wards into four zones for better solid waste management, transfer of dumping materials from the transit yard near Sainik School to Bhuasuni and privatisation of street sweeping with rising labour costs collectively will need more money. So we have a higher budget this year for solid waste management.”

Of the 60 wards under corporation limits, 53 are under the management of private sanitation contractors, and seven are managed by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) sanitation staff.

Official sources said that while Rs 30 crore had been estimated for privatisation of street sweeping, transfer and transport of solid waste to Bhuasuni would cost Rs 14 crore and construction of boundary wall and approach road to the proposed compost plant at the final dumping site at Bhuasuni would cost Rs 1 crore. The city generates nearly 400 metric tonnes of solid waste in a single day.

The civic body has to pay more to the cleaning staff and contract labourers as the minimum wage per day for unskilled persons was hiked from Rs 90 to Rs 150 last November. “The fuel cost will be more this year. We wanted some money for miscellaneous expenses as well. This added another Rs 19 crore to the estimate,” said a senior official.

Councillor of ward No. 58 Chhabindra Jena said: “The increased allocation for solid waste management is a welcome step, but we hope that the money will be used properly.”

The size of the budget for 2013-14 will be Rs 473 crore, as envisaged in the draft document.

The municipal commissioner said the civic body would give priority to construction of more bus stops, bus bays and slaughter houses.

The civic body hopes to receive around Rs 100 crore from sales proceeds of its assets. The civic body this year is going to spend around Rs 26 crore more towards meeting the administrative costs.