No driver, waste collected at doorstep can’t be disposed

NOIDA: Lack of a driver, only one working earthmover, and little time to dispose of waste — the much-hyped door-to-door garbage collection project in the city has already run into problems, barely three months after it was launched.

The agency hired for the job, Mumbai-based AG Enviro Infraprojects Pvt Ltd, claims it is not receiving infrastructural support from Noida Authority. On Monday, about seven of its trucks could not dump garbage till 11 am at the temporary dumpsite in Sector 145 as there was no driver to operate the only earthmover at the site.

Further, an additional 15 trucks of the Authority queued up at the same site since the latter is still picking up the bulk of the city’s waste. Moreover, while Noida Authority sanctioned three earthmovers, only one was working on Monday, said the agency.

AG Enviro Infraprojects corporate development officer Gaurav Kapoor said their work gets stalled as the dumpsite is open only for 8-10 hours (8 am to 6 pm). The agency is demanding that the site be open for 24 hours. “We had seven trucks – five tippers of 25-tonne capacity each and two fixed compactor transfer station vehicles of 16-tonne capacity — waiting at the dumpsite near Sector 145 as the driver for the dozer (earthmover) was not there.

“Soon, about 15 trucks of the Authority also lined up, all of which were offloaded only after 12.30pm once the driver was arranged. Till then, the dumping site was shut. As a result, the second round of garbage disposal got delayed and was carried out only after 3 pm. Till then, waste was lying untended,” said Kapoor.

M D Pandey, senior project engineer, Noida Authority, denied there was any delay in waste disposal. “I was at the dumpsite by 3 pm. There was no such problem,” said Pandey.

The private agency said out of the three earthmovers provided, only one was working. “We are facing infrastructural issues on a daily basis. The contractual dozers refuse to work more than five hours as they claim the fuel provided for the vehicle only lasts for that time,” said Kapoor.

According to Kapoor, small earthmovers won’t work in the long run. “We will eventually need Poclain machines. These are bigger versions of dozers with higher capacity and can throw garbage back onto mounds,” he said, adding that he has put forward the demand to address the daily generation of waste in the city.

Noida Authority’s Pandey, meanwhile, told TOI: “About one lot of legacy waste is already cleared from Sector 54 site. Now approximately 20,000 tonnes is left which will be remediated by mid-May.

Source : The Times of India