SDMC to install 100 water ATMs

NEW DELHI: After NDMC, South Delhi Municipal Corporation has initiated a project to install 100 water ATMs and 100 mobile toilet vans across its area.

The move has come after LG Anil Baijal held a meeting with the civic bodies last month and directed them to ensure that water ATMs are installed across Delhi at the earliest and are maintained properly.

Senior officials claimed that the tender has been floated and once installed, people can get chilled filtered water for just Rs 2 (250ml). "Paper glasses will be available at every water ATM. If someone wants to fill their bottle, they will have to pay Rs 5 per litre," a senior official said.

As a pilot project, SDMC had installed its first water ATM in Defence Colony Market last month. "The response was good and we decided to expand the services across our jurisdiction. In Defence Colony Market, every day about 300 glasses of water are sold. Once these ATMs are installed, people will not have to buy packaged bottle any more," he said.

The machine will have a capacity of 5,000 litres of RO water along with a provision for dumping paper glasses. As per the tender, every vendor has to ensure that glasses and any other kind of waste accumulated near the ATMs are cleared on a daily basis.

SDMC has identified 20-25 points in four zones — central, south, Najafgarh and west — for the installation and the tendering process. "The space for placing water ATMs will be provided by SDMC," added the senior official.

East corporation seeks more land for waste plant

NEW DELHI: The construction waste reprocessing plant at Shastri Park is all set for expansion. Following the LG's recent visit, a proposal to acquire a surrounding 2.5-acre DDA plot, which has 1.8 lakh metric tonne debris lying on it, has been sent to his office.

The plant, one of the few successful projects of the east corporation, processes 500MT construction waste every day and is running in full capacity . "The new plot will increase the capacity to 1,000MT per day ," said a senior official of the DEMS (sanitation) department.

Formally launched in February 2016, the plant receives malba from 15 designated collection sites across trans-Yamuna areas.Delhi generates around 5,000 MT of construction waste and most of it consists of inert, non-biodegradable material.

The processed material is being used to create interlocking tiles, bricks and other construction material and so far 1.8 lakh tonne waste has been recycled.

During his visit on July 8, LG Anil Baijal asked corporation officials to explore the possibility of enhancing the capacity of this plant as well as that of the Ghazipur waste-to-energy plant.