The Times of India  04.09.2010

KOLKATA: The whistle-blowing garbage collector, who turns up at your doorstep every morning, may soon go hi-tech. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation plans to junk the archaic, unwieldy tin cart with iron wheels and introduce a modern cart that is easier to negotiate through the city's alleys.

Two options are being evaluated a mechanised cart and a covered handcart with multiple covered bins to ensure that garbage does not spill on the streets. The new cart will sport rubber tyres so you won't have to wince at the irritating grinds and squeaks on the road.

There is more good news. The stink from the open garbage dumps or vats in localities will also be phased out. These dumps are a civic nuisance and a health hazard and have long been a cause for concern among the citizens.

According to the KMC officials, large covered containers with compactors will be placed at strategic locations to crush and store the garbage for disposal. The ramshackle fleet of uncovered garbage transportation trucks will be replaced with covered trucks.

At the dumping ground, too, there is a proposal to introduce heavy-duty compactors to further reduce the volume of garbage. At present, bulldozers level the garbage at Dhapa. The new landfill site will be scientifically developed to prevent leaching and contamination of the soil and ground water.

This complete overhaul of the collection, transportation and disposal of Kolkata's garbage will be executed early next year. The Centre has assured that it will sanction Rs 250 crore for the modernization of solid waste management under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

" Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has met Union minister of state for urban development Sougata Roy and has been assured that funds will not be a problem," an official said.

KMC would appoint consultants for the modernisation project, the mayor said, adding: "It is a crucial one for Kolkata because it can change the image of the city. By removing the dumps from streets, the association of Kolkata with filth and squalor should disappear."

A similar solid waste management plan, prepared under the Kolkata Environment Improvement Project, had failed to materialize. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) had agreed to fund the Rs 60 crore project on the condition that KMC set up a dumping ground in addition to Dhapa. "We have chosen a site and informed the ADB. We will place the garbage disposal modernisation project before ADB," an official said.