Chandigarh MC wants to spend Rs 48L to lift and shift waste across a wall

The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation announces its plans to earmark Rs 48 lakh for the process of lifting and transporting waste from the Dadumajra garbage processing plant to the dumping ground both of which are separated by a mere wall.

An agenda on the same will be placed before the finance and contract committee, seeking approval to outsource the work.

It was stated that earlier, the House considered and resolved that garbage lying at the processing plant would be lifted by the municipal corporation utilising its own infrastructure and that the medical officer of health (MOH) office had deployed its own machinery for lifting legacy waste from the dumping ground from January 2 to October 28 this year.

It was specified that only 6,746 MT legacy waste could be lifted and approximately 18,254 MT is still lying at the plant.

Interestingly, the civic body has the capacity to lift around 30,000 MT of waste from all of Chandigarh in 60 days’ time. However, the document states that machinery deployed by MOH is insufficient and it needs to outsource the work to an agency.

“It is felt that the machinery deployed by the MOH office for the said purpose is insufficient to lift all of the legacy waste speedily. Therefore, the office is of the view that besides Excavator-Cum-Loader and Poclain, tippers are also required for the speedy lifting of legacy waste from a garbage processing plant to dumping ground,” it was said.

On August 27 this year, officials had called for an immediate tender for lifting the dumped garbage.

In response to the tender, three bids were received by M/s Kher Constructions Chandigarh, M/s Ajt Singh & Sons, Chandigarh, and M/s Shiksha Enterprises Panchkula, Haryana.

After technical evaluation, two bidders were said to have technically qualified — M/s Kher Constructions Chandigarh and M/sAjit Singh and Sons.

The financial bid of the qualified bidders was opened and rates quoted by the firms were seen.

The municipal corporation said the rate quoted by Kher Constructions Chandigarh was found to be lowest — Rs 0.30- per kg (ie Thirty Paisa per kg) — which they said was “genuine as compared to cost analysis prepared by the office which comes to Rs 0.321- per kg”.

Not just this, the processing fee for remediation of 25,000 MT legacy waste lying at the plant as claimed by Chandigarh Smart City Limited is already under process, for which funds of Rs 1.44 crore + GST are already being spent.

As of October 28, 18,254 MT of legacy waste was lying at the processing plant.

It was stated that the MOH office will continue to put its machinery for lifting and transportation of legacy waste to dumping ground and it will ensure that 1,000 MT per month waste will be lifted/transported by the MOH office. However, the rest of the tentative legacy waste, which is 16,000 MT, will be lifted by an outsourced agency.

“The tentative expenditure for the said purpose comes out to be Rs.48 lakh. However, payment will be made on an actual basis and work shall be completed within two months from the date of allotment,” the document stated.

Vinod Vashisht, Convener, CFORWO (City Forum of Residents Welfare Organizations) said that ever since Municipal Corporation has taken over the control of Dadumajra waste processing plant (city’s only waste processing facility) in June 2020 from the JP group, the city’s solid waste end-processing has suffered further.

“Nearly 25,000 metric tonnes (MT) of piled up mixed waste is still lying unprocessed at the plant premises which has impacted the plant’s efficient functioning. This waste needs to be first cleared as was also observed by the NGT Monitoring Committee in February 2020. General House in July had given go-ahead to shift this waste to a nearby dumping site which is situated just across the road,” Vashisht said.

He added, ” We would rather suggest that Corporation may take a cue from the cost-effective success story of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) for a similar activity.”