Cuttack, Jan. 18: The Cuttack Municipal Corporation’s Rs 60-crore Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management (IMSWM) Project, envisaging mechanical sweeping of the city streets, is one step closer to implementation.

On Monday, the civic body’s evaluation committee finalised the tender bid floated for the purpose in favour of a Hyderabad-based company.

“The IMSWM project has been awarded to a Hyderabad-based company for implementation through a five-year contract,” municipal commissioner Rani Narayan Nanda told The Telegraph today.

“An agreement will be inked with the company within ten days. We plan to launch the project on March 1,” Nanda added.

Official sources said the committee decided to give the contract to the Hyderabad-based firm as it offered to take up the sweeping, collection, transportation and disposal of municipal solid waste, along with mechanical sweeping and door to door service in 36 of the 54 wards in the city at Rs 1,764 per metric tonne of garbage. The second highest bidder who had qualified after scrutiny of technical bid had reportedly offered the service for Rs 2,244 per metric tonne.

As part of the contract, the private firm will be responsible for mechanised sweeping of all main roads and sweeping of lanes, by-lanes and adjacent vacant areas where the mechanised process cannot be adopted. It will also be responsible for fixation of the required number of community bins and roadside bins of different sizes, with the objective of providing best sanitation.

Mayor Saumendra Ghosh hoped that handing over the jobs of street cleaning and collection and disposal of garbage with mechanical sweeping to the private company in 36 wards will ensure improved service delivery at a less cost.

“We are currently spending around Rs 1.20 crore every month towards garbage collection and disposal. But the expenditure is expected to come down to Rs 1 crore on implementation of the project through the private company,” the mayor told The Telegraph today.

The CMC has currently engaged 30-odd high-tech pick-up vehicles including 22 auto tippers, five trucks with hydraulic tippers, two skid steer loaders and a backhoe loader for collection of garbage from the city.

Under the new system, manual handling of solid waste will be prohibited. “If manual handling is unavoidable due to constraints, it shall be carried out with proper precaution and due care keeping in mind the issue of the safety of the workers,”

CMC officials said that the private company will construct and maintain a mechanised transfer station at its own cost at Sati Chaura for garbage collected from the city.