HYDERABAD: Ironic as it sounds, but while one wing of the GHMC installs twin bins for trash collection across the city, another one removes them in the name of footpath repairs.
The corporation, in 2019, installed twin bins at 100 metres distance on all commercial stretches in the city. In July 2020, contractors who executed the Comprehensive Road Maintenance Project (CRMP) removed them. After two years, the sanitation wing again floated tenders to instal new bins at a cost of Rs 2.46 crore.
Ideally, the corporation is supposed to instal twin bins at commercial areas and public places with a gap of between 50 and 100 metres all along the prime stretches.
The corporation spent about Rs 3 crore under corporate social responsibility to install over three lakh twin bins.
It also laid about 240 km of footpath against 9,000 km of road length. The civic body, along with the Hyderabad Road Development Corporation (HRDCL) and Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) laid 1,100 kms roads with an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crore
Simultaneously, it took footpath repairs and laid new pavements. Overenthusiastic contractors removed twin bins on the footpaths at several stretches without the notice of the sanitation wing. The monitoring agencies also ignored the issue and did not inform the twin bin removal to their higher authorities. As a result, commuters and wayside commercial establishment owners have been dumping the hazardous trash on the road side.
A senior official, requesting anonymity, told that private agencies had removed twin bins at several locations for repairing footpaths. He said though the issue had come to his notice, there was a confusion about whom to assign the job. However, he said after intense lobbying, the corporation would now spend Rs 2.46 crore to install twin litter bins and three litter bins with 100 litre capacity at 1,850 locations.
The official said bins were earlier installed by private firms under CSR and now the corporation would reinstal them by spending money from their own funds. He said the private agencies had removed the bins without adhering to defect liability clauses and it put a burden of Rs 2.46 crore on the civic body when it was in deep financial crisis.
