Ever since the city Corporation launched a licensing system for private vehicles collecting septage on April 18 last year, it has managed to collect as much as 4.2 crore litres of septage waste from across city. All of this waste, which once used to end up in waterbodies and public roads, is now treated at the Muttathara sewage treatment plant.
For the civic body, the licensing has become a revenue source, which had remained untapped all along. In the past eleven months, the Corporation has collected ₹2.42 crore as fees from the collection of septage waste from houses, flats, and institutions in the city. Out of this, around ₹60 lakh will be the Corporation’s share while the rest goes as payment to the private tankers employed for the purpose and other expenses.
Regulation of practice
“The main intention of the licensing is not revenue generation. Before the system was introduced, illegal operators used to run the whole thing without any rules. The sewage treatment plant at Muttathara never got any septage waste from these operators. We never knew how they used to treat the massive amount of septage they collected. Naturally, a large amount used to be dumped in waterbodies and in secluded areas within the city. When this problem mounted, the Corporation decided to introduce the licensing system. This has paid off now,” said an official of the city Corporation’s health wing.
The septage collecting trucks hardly ever remain idle as requests are logged in through the day on the Smart Trivandrum mobile application as well as at a call centre. Each of the trucks run at least three-four trips a day. The call centre is functioning at the Corporation from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on all days to coordinate the activities and to help those who are not familiar with online booking. (call centre number: 9496434488)