The wait for a cleaner Ranchi only got longer as Essel Infraprojects limited missed the deadline of submitting the Detailed Project Report (DPR) about its waste collection and solid waste management activities in the city.
The Mumbai-based firm was supposed to table the DPR in front of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) within six months of receiving the letter of Intent in August last year, after which the report was to be taken by the board of the urban local body for further deliberations.
“We have not received the DPR yet, there has been no interaction between the city’s ward councillors and representatives of Essel Infraprojects. As per the plan, the ward councillors were supposed to receive the DPR and then suggest strategies to the agency based on the report for functioning at grass root level,” said Ward-28 Councillor Ashok Baraik. When contacted, officials from Essel Infraprojects straightforwardly refused to comment on the delay in submitting the DPR. “We have been assured that the copy of DPR will be presented before us by Saturday this week,” stated Assistant Municipal Commissioner Bidya Nand Sharma Pankaj.
Essel Infraprojects had promised to use advanced technology in the process of waste collection and disposal of the collected trash. The 40 trash cars to be employed in door to door waste collection will be equipped with Global Positioning System for better monitoring. The collected garbage will be compressed in weight and volume at stationary or mobile garbage compactors. This compressed garbage is to be transferred to the upcoming waste to power plant sprawling over 12 acres in Jhiri. This electricity produced in the plant will be marketed by Essel Infra.
All this rings positive for Ranchi which fared poorly in the evaluation of Swachh Bharat Mission done recently. In the Swachh Survekshan, Ranchi secured 62nd place among 73 cities which were ranked as per cleanliness standards they offered.
Be it availability of dustbins or door to door trash collection or solid waste management, Ranchi scored well below average. In this scenario, Essel Infraprojects might have proved to be a boon for the city, but the delay in submitting the DPR is not helping either.
“RMC has been dependent on limited resources for cleaning the city since A2Z Infrastructure left in 2014. Since then, machines used for collecting and transporting trash have turned into trash, proper dustbins are hard to find. Purchase of new equipments has been stalled in wait of a private organisation to take up cleaning responsibilities in the city. Delays now will only make the situation worse, cleanliness-wise,” said Ward-37 Councillor Arun Kumar Jha.