Garbage management goes hi-tech with GPS, hand-helds

 Come January and the entire garbage-lifting procedure — lifting of garbage to dumping at landfill site — in east Delhi would be monitored electronically as the East Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to introduce technological innovations in the process.

While the garbage trucks and auto-tippers would be installed with GPS devices to monitor their movement, the EDMC has decided to procure hand-held devices to take picture of garbage being lifted and issue slips to maintain transparency in the total volume of garbage being lifted from the dhalaos (garbage dumping spots in residential colonies).

“It is a part of e-governance. The idea is to ensure electronic surveillance of the entire garbage-lifting mechanism. While GPS devices are being installed in all the auto-tippers and garbage trucks, some other technological innovations are also being introduced to improve efficiency and plug the loopholes,” said S S Yadav, Commissioner, EDMC.

The corporation officials said the hand-held devices would help in keeping a tab on the actual amount of garbage being lifted from the dhalaos and establishing if ‘zero hour’ is being maintained at the dhalaos.

“With GPS-enabled trucks in place, monitoring would start from the moment the trucks leave the workshops. The drivers would be given a hand-held device that would issue slips of the exact volume of garbage that was loaded in the trucks. The truck drivers would be required to submit it to the officials at the landfill site, who would be able to crosscheck the exact volume of garbage being dumped at the landfill,” said Yadav.

“Apart from that, the operator of the device would also be taking pictures of the dhalaos when the garbage would be lifted. It would help in establishing the time at which ‘zero hour’ at a particular dhalao was observed. Since the device would be connected to the central server, all the pictures would be uploaded on the server and it would be possible to monitor it on real time basis,” he added.

Tender for the hand-held devices have already been floated and the sets are likely to be inducted by the end of December, the officials said.