A team of civic guardians from Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) visited some of the proposed locations for trash transfer stations under the solid waste (SWM) management project to assess their feasibility and suggest required modifications.

These stations will be constructed at 20 points around the city for storing collected trash before it is transported to dumping grounds in Jhiri. Five of these 20 sites – one near ITI bus stand, Madhukam, behind Doordarshan headquarters, Naga Baba Khatal and beside Ranchi lake – were inspected by Mayor Asha lakra, Municipal Commissioner Prashant Kumar and other RMC functionaries.

Following the inspection, the Mayor suggested that the transfer station to be built near Ranchi lake should be relocated to Old Ranchi and another behind Doordarshan offices to be transferred near Naga Baba Khatal.

Apart from the five inspected locations, transfer stations will be built Khadgarha, near Rock Garden, Morhabadi, Edalhatu, Bariatu, Khelgaon, Kantatoli Chowk, line Pond, Harmu, near Radisson Blu, Namkum, Hinoo, Chandni Chowk, near Hatia police station, MECON and HEC area.

The transfer stations will be built on RMC-owned land plots, informed an official of the urban local body, and all of them will be inspected soon before getting the final nod.

Every transfer station will be equipped with three to four trash compactors which will be used to downsize the collected garbage in terms of volume. Areas where transfer stations could not be built will be covered using mobile compactors.

The exact number of mobile compactors will be decided after we complete the survey for transfer stations, stated Arun Kumar Singh of Essel Infratech, the firm executing the project.

A waste-to-energy plant with production capacity of 11.5 MW is also in the cards, where the collected trash will be incinerated for producing electricity. Keeping up with the ideals of cleanliness, this plant will be equipped with technologies to ensure it wastes nothing.

“It is possible with modern technology to use even what is considered waste, and the same will be done at the plant. The ash produced by burning trash will be used to manufacture interlocking bricks and similar items,” Singh stated.

Space for the power plant has been demarcated and the necessary procedures will be done soon, he expressed hopefully.

Even the pickup trucks to be used for collecting trash will be made technologically sound to streamline the garbage management works.

Around 400 trash cars that will begin doing the round from May 1 will be

fitted with Global Positioning System, enabling their

supervisors and denizens of Ranchi to keep an eye on their movements.

“A central control room will be set up to monitor the movements of the trash cars; we are waiting for RMC to provide us the required space. Even common people will be able to monitor them in real time through mobile applications that we will develop for this purpose,” said Singh.