Waste collection vehicles in parts of Delhi to be fitted with GPS devices as part of pilot project

The pilot project will be tested in Delhi's west zone and Dwarka areas

A National Green Tribunal-appointed high-level committee has ordered that a pilot project be started in Delhi's west zone and Dwarka areas to install GPS devices in waste collection vehicles and monitor them, officials said.

The first meeting of the committee for monitoring the management and disposal of municipal solid waste, headed by Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, was held on April 25. The committee was constituted by the NGT in February.

During the meeting, the committee decided that a project be started on a pilot basis in the west zone and Dwarka where cleaning and waste collection starts at 5 am, Raj Niwas officials said.

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It was also decided to increase the number of waste collection vehicles and install GPS devices in all of them for monitoring them, they said.

The committee also directed officials to submit a report with photographs every day, they added.

During the meeting, it was informed that biomining and disposal of legacy waste, which was being carried out by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) at an average rate of 1.4 lakh metric tonnes (MT) per month between October 2019 and May 2022, had picked up pace substantially after LG Saxena's interventions. During the period from June to December 2022, it had reached an average of 6 lakh MT per month, the officials said.

Subsequently, interventions like integrated tenders for biomining, transportation and disposal have led to a current average of about 7.5 lakh MT of waste being disposed of every month, with a daily average of about 25,000 MT at the three legacy waste sites at Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla, they said.

The LG issued instructions for the same to be scaled up to the full capacity of 30,000 MT per day, they said.

The committee also decided to implement a revised ward-wise action plan and asked the MCD to submit the name of the concerned officer within 10 days for achieving 100 per cent waste segregation.

It also directed the additional divisional railway manager to immediately resolve the issue of solid waste lifting alongside railway tracks with the MCD.