What a stink! Garbage piles up at Hyderabad transfer stations

HYDERABAD: Huge volumes of garbage have piled up at transfer stations as transport vehicles were off the roads on Friday after the agreement between contractors of hired vehicles and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for transporting garbage from transfer stations to the dumpyard at Jawaharnagar came to end on December 31.

The agreement ended on Thursday, after which  GHMC’s Transport Wing made no fresh attempts to renew the agreements. The Municipal Corporation has decided to hand over major part of the transport operations to Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (REEL), the concessionaire partner for Solid Waste Management (SWM) under the Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode, from January 1.

The GHMC is asking the contractors to sign a fresh agreement with the concessionaire agency, till REEL procures its own vehicles for transporting garbage from GTS to the dumpyard. A meeting was convened on Thursday in this regard, however, only a few agreed to the proposal. GHMC is yet to clear the payments to hired vehicles for the past three months. Also, sanitation workers fear that they might lose their jobs. Close to 2,000 workers are employed as drivers and labourers.