2-wheelers to collect waste from city’s narrow lanes

Bhubaneswar: To make waste collection easy from houses located along the city’s narrow lanes and streets in different wards, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the first time deployed a motorcycle-borne container to lift waste on Monday.
The initiative called Safaibike is being run on an experimental basis. A motorcycle has been customised with three big containers — two on either side and the third placed on the pillion seat.
“It is comfortable for riders. It can access narrow lanes. Waste from households can be comfortably collected and brought to the nearby point, where a light commercial vehicle (LCV) will be parked, and empty its buckets into it and go for collection again,” said BMC deputy commissioner (sanitation) Suvendu Sahu.
The Safaibikes will not go straightaway to the micro composting centres (MCC), where wet waste is processed and material recovery facilities (MRF), where dry waste is segregated. Only the LCV and battery-operated tricycles will be allowed to unload waste directly at these two facilities.
BMC officials said the Safaibike can bring revolution in waste collection from every nook and corner of the city. There are 436 slums, most of which have narrow roads. The Old Town area around Lingaraj shrine also has narrow lanes criss-crossing amid rows of very old houses.