Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

With the local Municipal Corporation set to receive all 390 two-bin waste-lifting vehicles by December 31, commercial and residential users will have to pay the revised user charges from January in their water bills.

“We are getting all 390 vehicles by December 31 and waste segregation and collection using these is being started simultaneously. Full-fledged work will start in January. The already approved charges will be implemented from January,” said MC Commissioner KK Yadav.

He said they had already started the process of hiring existing collectors as drivers or helpers for the new vehicles. The MC had also invited objections from the collectors and some of them had already filed their objections. These were being examined, he said.

Until now, the collectors have been operating independently. For the past three years, the MC has been unsuccessfully trying to take them on board. However, with the waste-lifting vehicles coming its way, the civic body will find it easy to implement its old plan to streamline the waste collection system.

The civic body received the first lot of 19 two-bin vehicles on Monday. There are 2.50 lakh households and 35,000 commercial users. By incorporating villages, there will be a total of 3.50 lakh users. The corporation is expecting to earn Rs42 crore per annum as collection charges.

After the increased water tariff, local residents should now brace for paying the revised door-to-door waste collection charges. Several commercial places, which were not paying earlier, will also have to shell out the amount now.

Whether they give waste to door-to-door garbage collectors or not, the amount will be added to their water bills.

Approved monthly charges

Residential areas up to 50 sq metre: Rs50
50-200 sq metre: Rs100
200-500 sq metre: Rs 200
500-1,000 sq metre: Rs250
1,000 sq metre: Rs350
Commercial establishments, shops and eating places: Rs500
Restaurants up to a seating capacity of 50: Rs2,000
With a capacity of over 50: Rs3,000.
Clinics, dispensaries, laboratories (more than 50 beds) with non bio-medical waste: Rs4,000
Commercial offices, government offices, banks, insurance offices, coaching classes and educational institutions: Rs 2,000