Lack of infra turns Ranchi into waste land

RANCHI: The state capital is still deprived of a proper waste management and disposal system, 15 years after its formation. This has resulted in the collection and disposal of garbage from homes near the road side.
While crossing Kadru Bridge, one can immediately see garbage dumped on either side of it, shortening the available space for vehicles. Garbage here is usually dumped by daily wage earners employed by Ranchi Municipal Corporation.They are assigned the task of collecting and disposing of garbage on trucks.
Similarly, the road behind Indira Palace at Heenu is also a dumping yard for garbage. Waste collected here throughout the week is cleared once a week, making it difficult for the locals to road.
Smita Gupta, a local resident at Shukla Colony, Heenu said, “The trucks that collect the garbage dumps it here everyday and clears it only during the week. In such a situation, walking on this road becomes really difficult and we have to take a much longer route to reach our homes.”
Presently, there is a garbage disposal site at Jhiri, around 15km away from the city at Kanke block, where around 450 metric tonne of garbage from the city is dumped there everyday.
According to procedure, after garbage is collected from across the city, it has to be disposed at Harmu. It is then transported to Jhiri every day. However, many of the garbage collectors do not take the garbage to the dump yard but instead choose to dump it at a vacant spot anywhere in the city.
Superintendent engineer of RMC, Bijay Kumar Bhagat said, “There is a crisis of man power in RMC. This has made it difficult for us to monitor the garbage collection and disposal process properly. The problem of waste disposal can be solved by outsourcing the work.”
When the agreement between RMC and A2Z waste management company was signed in 2011, the plot at Jhiri was given to A2Z to use as a waste disposal site. The area was also to be used for the construction of a solid waste disposal plant. However, the contract was terminated within two years in 2013 due to poor performance of the company. The plant was never established after that.
A tender for waste management in the city was again floated by RMC in October 2014 but was cancelled due to technical faults. This proved to hinder RMC’s plans to make Ranchi a clean city by January 2015.
Another tender was floated earlier this year and only one company, SL Infratech Ltd of Mumbai bid for the tender. Bhagat said, “We have sent the experience certificate of the company for verification but have not received a reply yet. A technical evaluation of the company will be done on June 5 to decide if the company is capable of discharing duties.”
If the agreement is signed between RMC and the bidding company, the company will not just have to oversee waste disposal in the city, but will also be responsible for the construction of a solid waste disposal plant.
The plant will help segregate the decomposable and non-decomposable garbage.
The decomposable garbage will be used to make compost while the non-decomposable garbage will used as land filling.