The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will purchase 1,400 dustbins worth Rs28,000 each. It has earmarked Rs4.4 crore for these community bins which will be placed at all arterial roads and slums in the city.
To be manufactured in Delhi, these expensive bins, the civic authority claims, are a specialised product. “These are galvanised steel dustbins which will be corrosion resistant. These bins are uniquely compatible with the compactors which collect garbage across the city. They need not be lifted and the garbage can be transferred from them instantly through an attachment,” said Balchandra Patil, chief engineer, BMC’s solid waste management department.
There are already 5,800 community bins at 3,700 collection points in the city. But civic officials claim that several of these bins have exceeded their life span and they need to be replaced. The new bins have a life span of more than four years.
The officials also said that the contract was awarded through competitive bidding; five companies participated in the process and the least expensive bins were selected.
Congress corporator Rajendra Chaubey, however, said that spending Rs4 crore for dustbins is unjustified. “On one hand, BMC claims it is cash strapped but on the other it fishes out that kind of an amount for bins. But what is mechanism are they adopting to collect garbage,” Chaubey questioned.
The new bins have a capacity of 1,100 litres and they can store garbage of over a metric tonne.
Often, bins positioned by the BMC get stolen. “The question of stealing these bins does not arise because each of them weigh 250 kg. These bins will be thrice the weight of an air conditioner and cannot easily be lifted. Besides, the market value of these bins is zero,” added Patil.
Although the civic body’s aim is to reduce the number of community dustbins and enhance door to door garbage collection, these bins are aimed to reduce inaccessible spots and high garbage generation points. These bins will be on the roads in the vicinity of shops, vegetable markets and slum areas.
Moreover, they will be colour coded. Green bins will be for biodegradable waste while blue ones will collect dry waste.
