How Bengaluru aims to reorganise its waste transfer system

Bengaluru: Flushed with funds, the Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Ltd (BSWML) plans to establish 30 large garbage transfer stations across the city to replace the long-standing practice of loading waste on roadsides, a system that has often drawn complaints over hygiene and traffic disruption.

But the move to build high-capacity stations, instead of smaller decentralised facilities, is raising concerns among waste management experts who say the model could increase travel distances for auto tippers and affect door-to-door waste collection in some parts of the city.

So far, the waste management agency has operationalised three transfer stations in Koramangala, Chamarajpet and Sarvagna Nagar, while work is underway in constituencies such as Vijayanagar and Shivajinagar. These are meant to handle 150 tonnes of waste.

Now, the BSWML has proposed to set up 23 more and much larger stations in areas such as CV Raman Nagar, Hebbal, Yelahanka, Mahadevapura, RR Nagar and Jayanagar, among others, at a total cost of Rs 316.52 crore. The Government of India will provide Rs 68.42 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0, while the state government will bear Rs 43.79 crore. The remaining Rs 204.31 crore will be funded by the five city corporations.

Under the new system, garbage-laden auto tippers unload waste into static containers at the facility. A hook loader then lifts the container and pushes the waste into a 15-tonne capsule mounted on a 10-wheeler truck. Once full, the truck transports the waste to processing facilities, waste-to-energy plants or landfill sites located 20 to 30 km away from the city.

Within a year, all of Bengaluru’s Assembly constituencies — whose geography and population size vary widely — are expected to have a waste transfer station.

Question over mini or large stations

Before proposing the large facilities, the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had established 25 mini transfer stations across the city in 2019. Each facility could handle about 25 tonnes of waste and was designed to serve a single ward. They required less space and had lower operational costs.

In this system, auto tippers directly unloaded waste into specially designed compactors that did not require equipment such as hook loaders or static containers. However, each compactor could carry only up to ten tonnes of waste, compared with the 15-tonne capsules used in the new system.

The project, however, faced challenges during implementation, including resistance from local residents, oversupply of waste that caused spillage, and difficulty in identifying alternate land. In places such as Jeevan Bima Nagar, garbage was often transferred outside the facility instead of inside, reducing its effectiveness.

The new transfer stations are ten times bigger in size, and each facility is designed to handle 250 to 260 tonnes of garbage.

However, a 260-tonne facility requires waste from at least six to eight wards to run at optimum capacity. Waste generated in each ward ranges from about 20 to 30 tonnes a day to as much as 60 to 70 tonnes, depending on population density. This also shows that the standard size of the transfer station is designed without taking into account the size of a constituency and the volume of waste it generates.

The reason is that some wards in Bengaluru are compact, while others are geographically large.

Constituencies such as Mahadevapura, RR Nagar, Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru South and KR Puram stretch several kilometres, potentially increasing travel time for waste-laden auto tippers.

A solid waste management expert said the BSWML should have designed a mix of transfer stations with varying capacities, given the differences in the size and design of Assembly constituencies and even wards. “A one-size-fits-all approach does not work in Bengaluru,” the expert said.

She added that longer travel distances could discourage auto tippers from making additional collection trips.

“Each auto tipper carries about 600 kg of waste. With an average household generating around 1.4 kg daily, an auto tipper is expected to make two trips to cover about 750 houses. Transfer stations therefore must be located strategically so that auto tippers can unload waste within a reasonable radius. If the facility is far away, household waste collection may be disrupted.”

M Maheshwar Rao, Managing Director, BSWML, said the model was based on the waste volumes handled by the existing transfer stations in Chamarajpet and Koramangala.

“We have proposed one transfer station per constituency, but large constituencies may need more than one,” he said.

“During operations, wards will be mapped based on the distance to the transfer station. We can split wards within a constituency depending on the station’s location and the quantity of waste generated,” he added.

Some experts said that in large constituencies such as Mahadevapura, KR Puram, RR Nagar, Yeshwantpur and Bengaluru South, three or more medium-capacity transfer stations of around 100 tonnes would have been more practical than a single large facility.