The Times of India             19.08.2013

The JNNURM Panaji garbage imbroglio

There are reports suggesting that the Central government would readily approve of a 97 crore solid waste treatment plant under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for Panaji city.

Let alone the 1,000 crore funds requested by the Goa government for various development projects for Panaji, including the comprehensive mobility plan, even the garbage management plant with the so-called German technology would be 'shot down' by experts of the Union urban development ministry as most of these plans have not been developed keeping the mandatory reforms process in mind and at heart.

Except for the project on revitalization of the St Inez creek, and the minor projects on heritage and e-governance, the projects drawn on the mobility plans, solid waste management project, the scheme for sewerage system upgradation and providing housing for the urban poor are in a state of flux and in quandary in Goa for over seven years.

JNNURM is not a fairy godmother with abundant cash just waiting to dole out the amount requested for by state governments.

The major thrust of JNNURM, with which I have been associated since December 2006, is that the money is not only given to stall and stem urban decay but also to enable cities to empower themselves to be sustainable in revenue generation and capable to prevent growth of slums and urban degeneration and decay. Panaji is one of the 60 cities chosen to receive JNNURM funds.

It is beyond my scope to analyze and explain the reasons why JNNURM funds for Goa would remain on paper and Panjimites would have missed the bus when grants under JNNURM stop in March, 2014. I will delve in detail only on the solid waste management project which has been prepared by Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) and submitted to New Delhi for funding purposes.

The foremost condition to receive JNNURN grants is that the project must be prepared by consultants empanelled by the Union urban development ministry and routed through the local self governing body, in this case CCP.

It is strange that the SWM plant is to be executed and implemented by GSIDC, without allowing the so-called SWM plant to be discussed at the regular CCP meeting. Garbage management is CCP's core competence, why GSIDC then?

When CCP asserts that it has enough expertise to plan and execute development projects under JNNURM, why has the corporation, which has the core competence to clean and treat garbage, allowed this project to be smuggled by GSIDC?

JNNURM is unlikely to entertain GSIDC's German technology project for Rs 97 crore as GSIDC has neither the technical competence to prepare and defend the fermentation technology envisaged in the garbage derived bio-gas plant, nor is this project relevant to Goa since it is capital intensive and is incapable for sustaining and maintaining itself on its own. Being a 'white elephant' the bio-gas plant proposed by GSIDC with German technology would be a non-starter just as the earlier 'bio-gas plant' which became a 'bad dream' and a financial drain on the taxpayers of Panaji in 2009.

Isn't it irritating and demoralizing that the Goa government is not learning from history and making Panjimites pay the huge costs for its callousness and carelessness by imposing 500% rise in the collection of 'house tax'? CCP and the government have failed Goans at large, and Panjimites in particular, for pushing forth a technology for waste management which is irrelevant and misplaced for the Goan environment.

In 2010, a sub-committee headed by then Panaji MLA Manohar Parrikar under the JNNURM steering committee had approved the preparation of compost through a SWM process as suggested by Tetra Tech, New Delhi. During 2009-2011, Tetra Tech had detailed out how bio-fertilizer could be produced using microbial technology. Plans were drawn how mechanically all garbage would be segregated, sorted, baled and sold thus generating revenue by the plant. The Tetra Tech project was sabotaged and shelved.

Being personally involved from 2006 to date, I placed all my efforts to ensure that 95% of Goan waste would be transformed into plastic fuel and briquettes. Plant wastes would have been transferred into green pellets to be used as wood derived fuel. The magnetic separator and air-blowers would have separated out metals, tins, glass and cellulose-lignin derived materials. Construction debris and mud were to be moulded into bricks. There are structures in place to handle hazardous and bio-medical waste in the Tetra Tech concept by incinerating the toxic hazardous wastes. Finally, scientific landfills to dispose the inert matter and ashes were meticulously planned to be executed after Tetra Tech defended this windrow composting project before JNNURM officials in New Delhi.

The sub-committee had approved the 1,76,000 sq m area at Bainguinim and CCP had paid for it. There was 30 sq m buffer zone with trees and plants all around. There were provisions made for laboratories for garbage analysis, both before and after composting of garbage. Administrative blocks, staff quarters, agricultural plots for field trials, mechanical separators and segregators and the mechanism for windrow composting with no energy-intensive mechanism was drawn. The preparation of scientific landfill site and the site incineration plant with logistical approaches (using security systems and weighing bridges) would all have come at the cost of 34 crore.

The appropriate and relevant windrow project has been replaced by the expensive GSIDC German-technology project. The new project would entail the separation of garbage at source by manual means using hands, which is a health hazard since garbage handling in Goa by workers has led to severe diseases and infections in the manual handlers of garbage in Panaji.

The 97 crore garbage plant is a capital intensive facility and a drain on our economy. Unlike bio-fertilizer production the bio-gas plants in Goa have been a huge failure. The dewatering of garbage fermentation and holding of gas would require expert handling, not available in Goa. The German process would thus be dumped by JNNURM and discarded, thus forcing the Goa government to go ahead with people's money through state funding to save face.

There is need to know why the government is not promoting the modest 34 crore windrow solid waste plant, which would generate green manure and transform non bio-degradable wastes into pellets for reuse or as fuel? JNNURM would have surely funded this project relevant and capable of sustaining itself. There is negligible maintenance and running costs and it is not an energy-intensive proposition. The windrow project is a green project and would have given Goans the carbon credit, being environmentally friendly and holistic in its approach.

The GSIDC project is already costing the government as a team of officers and elected representatives if due to fly to Germany to understand the technology.

While GSIDC will brag about the state-of-the-art SWM, Panjimites will reel under the never ending miseries of garbage mismanagement and woes of higher tax burden to dwell in filth and the never ending stench of open urination, defecation and garbage litter as casinos, tourists flow and real estate concentration continues to batter and tatter the once serene and tranquil environs of Panaji.

The Hindu               19.08.2013

East Corporation to monitor garbage vehicles online

Staff Reporter

Soon the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) will be able to track the waste disposal system online.

As a part of the ‘E-Municipality Solid Waste Disposal Monitoring System’ launched this past week, the authorities will be able to monitor auto-tippers, trucks and loaders which are engaged in solid waste disposal through GPS device, Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) readers and tags installed in these vehicles. The movement of the waste disposal vehicles and the other vehicles would be tracked through the website www.edmctracking.com.

EDMC Mayor Ram Narayan Dubey said: “GPS device tags/RFID readers have been installed in vehicles engaged in collection and disposal of solid waste to make the whole process completely transparent and East Delhi cleaner.”

“The GPS device will help point out the actual movement of these vehicles and give more accurate statistics related to solid waste collection and disposal. It will also be beneficial in making policies in a better way in future,” he added.

GPS devices will also help know the movement of these vehicles, time wasted, over-speeding, the area covered and their parking status.

The Mayor said that the total cost of this four-year project is Rs.1.92 crore and that it had been awarded to a private company — M/s A. K. S. Software Limited. The company has installed VTS devices in 233 auto-tippers, RF tags in 81 secondary vehicles such as trucks, loaders etc and RF tags at 278 dhalaos. After four years, the project will be handed over to the EDMC.

Civic body Standing Committee Chairman Sanjay Surjan said when trucks and loaders will reach at the dhalao to collect the waste, the drivers will scan the RF tags of trucks and loaders on their own using the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device installed in the loaders.

Thereafter, the loaders will load the waste in trucks and take a picture of the clean dhalao. “The photograph will immediately be uploaded on the server. With a blue tooth printer, a photocopy of the slip will be prepared which will be handed over to the truck driver,” said Mr. Surjan.