Guwahati Municipal Corporation Delays Tracking Project in Garbage Picking Vehicles

The proposal for the project was initiated in August 2020. But there is no clarity about when the project will start. 

Guwahati: Understanding the need to have better monitoring of the garbage collection process, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation is planning to install GPRS auto-tracking system on all vehicles engaged in the process. However, there is no clarity about when the project will come into effect.

The Geographic Information System (GIS) expert of Municipal Corporation, Mr Utpal Sharma says that this project will be a better alternative to their already-existing manual tracking system. “The tracking system will help us monitor our entire fleet of vehicles from one place- their routes, the distance covered, the stoppage time at each dustbin or locality.” He adds that the monitoring will help them to estimate the kilometres covered by vehicles and fuel consumption, thus helping in cutting down unnecessary costs.

The residents of Guwahati often complain that the Municipal Corporation of the city fails to pick up garbage regularly from homes and streets. Mr Anil Rajkonwar, a resident of Guwahati says, “They (GMC garbage collectors) should come on a daily basis. But they show up only once or twice a week, or not at all.”

Another resident of Guwahati, Bhaben Das, says that despite informing the municipal corporation multiple times about a make-shift garbage pit in front of his house, the authorities have not taken any action so far. He adds that people in his locality and nearby areas use the pit to dump their garbage because there is no dustbin in the vicinity.

However, contractors and assistant engineers who overlook the process of garbage collection in the city, say that there is no complaint from the public about irregular garbage collection. Kamal Nath, a contractor in-charge of garbage collection in a locality of Guwahati says that there is hardly any complaint in his area and that everything is running smoothly.

While there is no clarity about when the plan will be executed, the commissioner of GMC, Mr Ghanashyam Dass, says that it should come into effect without any budgetary problem. “Budget allocation will not be an issue. This project doesn’t require a huge investment. Per vehicle, we have a quotation of around Rs. 17000, including maintenance for four-five years.” Although the official website of the municipal corporation says that the bidding process is over and three bidders have been finalised for technical evaluation, there is no information on who has finally won the contract.