Corpn to rent out garbage collection vehicles, bins & boost revenue flow

Coimbatore: The city corporation would rent out most of its garbage collection vehicles and bins to the private agency tasked with the job of waste management in the city. The move would boost the civic body’s revenue flow.A corporation official said, “Now that the garbage collection is outsourced, the vehicles are no longer required for the civic body. Garbage collection vehicles alone are expected to fetch a daily rent of 75,000.”The official said 950 pushcarts, 100 battery-operated vehicles, 309 light commercial vehicles, 27 heavy vehicles, five compactors, 110 hook loaders, six sweeping machines and 1,250 bins were available with the city corporation.“At least 1,291 of the 1,391 vehicles will be rented out to the private agency, which will soon take over garbage collection from us. We have decided to retain 91 light commercial vehicles and nine heavy vehicles for our own use,” he told TOI.As per the direction of the municipal administration department, the official said, daily rent has been fixed at 10 for a pushcart, 100 for a battery-operated vehicle, 200 for a light commercial vehicle, 400 for a heavy vehicle, 1,000 for a compactor, 500 for a hook loader, 500 for a sweeping machine and 15 for a bin.Recently, the city corporation had finalized a Kanyakumari-based agency for garbage collection and disposal. The agency would be paid 170 crore per year.Corporation officials had justified the outsourcing move, stating it was part of a cost saving measure. Pegging the cost involved in waste management at 230 crore for the current financial year, corporation commissioner M Prathap had recently told the council meeting that outsourcing the same would help the civic body save 60 crore a year.Another corporation official said all the 2,359 permanent workers involved in garbage collection would be redeployed at various facilities managed by the city corporation.“While 1,247 of them will be deployed for cleaning and sweeping roads, another 312 will be tasked with the job of cleaning public toilets. We are also planning to use 100 of them for fogging and malaria prevention work, 127 for cleaning health centres toilets and another 200 for attending to drainage blocks. The remaining workers will be deployed at corporation parks for maintenance, dry waste processing centres, bus stands and markets. Some of them will be used for clearing bushes as well,” the official said.
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