Dhanbad’s solid waste mgmt project on verge of failure

Dhanbad: As monsoon arrives, the coal town stares at garbage piles and choked drains as its Rs 274 crore-solid waste management project is on the brink of collapse after the Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) allegedly failed to provide infrastructural support.
The project, launched with much fanfare in July last year, is run by DMC through Hyderabad-based firm, Ramky Enviro Engineers. Talking to TOI on Thursday, an official of the firm said, “It is very difficult to carry out garbage transportation and its management and handling with less than one-fourth of the required compactor stations. The compactor stations serve as primary garbage dumping stations where wet garbage is compressed to reduce weight before final dumping at the recycling stations. We also need to engage more vehicles to transport the garbage.”
He said, “Ideally, there should be at least one compactor station for each of the 55 wards spread over five circles, including Jharia, Dhanbad, Sindri, Katras and Chhatatand, but we have reduced it because of land scarcity.” The official added, “But even after reducing our requirements, we are not getting enough facilities. Of the 30 compactor stations needed, we have got only seven although we have extended our services to 49 wards of 55.”
Dhanbad municipal commissioner Chandramohan Kashyap said, “We have already provided some land to set up more compactor stations to the firm, which is yet to launch installation work.”
Notably, DMC had provided a list of land to the firm for the compactor stations, but Ramky officials claimed that due to lack of relevant details like proper map and NOC, they could not start work.
Kashyap, however, termed non-availability of land details and lack of NOC as baseless and said, “If there is any complaint, the agency should contact us.”