After a day’s uncertainty, garbage lifting has resumed from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC)’s transfer stations through hired vehicles whose services were stopped on Friday owing to termination of contract.
Contractors of hired vehicles have been reportedly asked by the GHMC’s Transport wing officials to resume operations, pending extension of agreement with them. “They have said nothing about extension of agreement, but merely asked us to resume operations. We have started plying vehicles upon oral commitment by the officials that it was GHMC’s responsibility to pay us for the services rendered. They said our demand for extension of agreement was under consideration,” a contractor informed.
Earlier, intending to hand over the garbage transportation component to Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (REEL), the concessionaire partner of the Solid Waste Management project for the city, GHMC had refrained from extending the agreement with the operators of hired vehicles which ended on December 31, 2020.
Talks fail
However, it turned out that the agency did not have sufficient fleet to completely undertake the operations all by itself. It sought the services of the hired vehicles eased out from GHMC. A round of deliberations was conducted with the contractors of these vehicles towards signing an agreement with REEL. The talks, mediated by GHMC Transport wing, failed to reach a conclusion, with the contractors unwilling to sign an agreement with REEL on the latter’s terms.
As a result, the city ushered in the first day of the New Year, with garbage piled up in its 17 transfer stations, forcing the authorities to resort to hired vehicles yet again from the next day.
As per the Public-Private-Partnership agreement for Solid Waste Management signed in 2008-09, REEL has to undertake all operations right from door-to-door collection up to the waste treatment and management at the land-fill site.
However, the agency has since been restricted to the operations at the Jawahar Nagar dump yard, owing to strident protests by workers’ unions who decried loss of jobs for drivers and labourers. GHMC has, however, gradually brought the number of its own vehicles to a bare minimum, by condemning majority of them in the name of age and condition. Instead, they began to hire vehicles from outside, to run the garbage clearance operations from the transfer stations.
REEL had launched its own fleet of vehicles in November last year, through the hands of the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T.Rama Rao. A total of 55 Benz vehicles, touted as equipped with the most modern technology, were flagged off for stench-free and secure waste transportation.
The vehicles had fully integrated IOT sensors, telemetry and advanced safety systems such as Driver Awareness System and other safety and efficiency innovations, a statement had said.
A dedicated Command & Control Centre remotely tracks and reports on the performance of this smart waste collection and transport system round the clock, it said.