Hyderabad: The GHMC has no mechanism to quantify the amount of construction and demolition waste that is beign cleared off the city’s streets. The private agency which has been processing C&D waste has been charging Rs 350 per metric tonne and quantifying it according its will.
Despite debris lying in everywhere in the city, the corporation’s records claim that it has been lifting 4,000 metric tonnes of C&D waste per month.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had in a report criticised the GHMC for not developing a scientific mechanism to quantify solid waste in the city.
After the civic body submitted its report stating that the quantity of solid waste collected in Hyderabad had doubled in five years, the audit report found that there was no mechanism to assess the quantity of waste generated or collected as there were no weigh bridges at transfer stations.
The CAG said the records of solid waste collected was not accurate due to the lack of weigh bridges. It said that the GHMC must upgrade its transfer stations and general amenities, such as installing a computerised system for billing and tracking the movement of vehicles.
Even though it is armed with this advise, the corporation has been paying lumpsums for inaccurate quantities. C&D waste is still found in most parts of the city. This was even noticed by GHMC commissioner M. Dana Kishore during a recent inspection.
Highly placed sources said there was a nexus between private agency and C&D wing officials which was providing false information regarding the waste cleared from the city’s streets.
Officials were reluctant to provide information about scientific quantification of C&D waste. As per official records it was found that the GHMC had removed 81,647 metric tonnes in April, 26,339 metric tonnes in May, 47,866 metric tonnes in June, 53,212 metric tonnes in July, 24,660 metric tonnes in August, 46,248 metric tonnes in September and 26,673 metric tonnes in October.
This without increasing the number of vehicles, and officials did not provide data to show that the number of trips had been increased. However, a senior official said it would be impossible to remove the amount of C&D waste as was being projected. He assured that he would conduct an internal inquiry.
Ramky Enviro Engineers was awarded work pertaining to collection, transportation, processing and management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste in GHMC on public-private partnership mode Fathullaguda and Jeedimetla.
This will be for a period of 25 years at a tipping fee of Rs 342 per metric tonne with an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore as tipping fee per year for each plant. Since the agency is not processing the C&D the corporation has been paying Rs 256 per metric tonne.
