Lying dumped for 8 months, MC’s new e-rickshaws to start road trip with GPS

LUDHIANA: In a bid to keep tabs on the movement of e-rickshaws to be used for door-to-door garbage collection, the civic authorities are now planning to install GPS tracker in these vehicles which are likely to be linked with the integrated command and control centre (ICCC) for monitoring. The civic body has faced criticism for spending Rs 8.5 crore on these e-rickshaws which have not been used till date. The residents feel the authorities should ensure these should be brought on road for usage as well so that garbage lifting should be proper.
The MC had purchased around 400 e-rickshaws under the National Clean Air Programme with an aim to ensure 100% garbage lifting from households. Officials had claimed that the move was taken to pace up garbage lifting as compared to traditional way of lifting garbage through rehdis. One e-rickshaw has the capacity to lift 3 cubic meters of garbage at one point of time which is almost thrice the capacity of rehdis.
Sources said MC officials did not distribute e-rickshaws in areas due to ongoing tussle among councillors and ruling party MLAs. Now when the tenure of councillors is coming to an end on March 25, officials will start use of these e-rickshaws. As many as 97 e-rickshaws have been sought by officials of the health branch for remote areas where garbage lifting has stopped or garbage collectors are not available.
Question marks were also raised on the quality of e-rickshaws.
MC’s executive engineer Ranbir Singh said, “For GPS installation, we got approval from the MC commissioner and it has been sent to the mayor for the final approval. After this, we will float tenders and installation will begin. It will cost around Rs 3,000 per e-rickshaw to install GPS.”
Meanwhile, residents claimed that the authorities should ensure use of these e-rickshaws on the ground. Manjot Kaur, a resident of Maya Nagar, said, “Garbage lifting in the area is not regular as collectors sometimes skip houses as their rehdis get filled. There is a need to ensure garbage lifting on a daily basis.”
Senior BJP councillor Sunita Rani in MC general house meeting on February 10 had raised question marks on the quality of these e-rickshaws. Other BJP councillors had raised doubts on the cost of e-rickshaws.