Agartala, Dec 13 (TIWN): With an effort to make the capital city Agartala clean and to keep the environment fresh and hygienic, Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) has been carrying out Solid Waste Management (SWM) in four zones covering 35 wards in 58.84 Sq km area in two categories- Municipal Solid Waste and Biomedical Waste.

According to a source, the Agartala being a rapidly growing city generates large quantity of Solid Waste and other waste such as bio-medical waste. As such there has not been any systematic study regarding the quantity of the Municipal Solid Waste generated in Agartala City. But from the reference of the SWM toolkit prescribed by JnNURM, a city with population of 4-5 lakh and with middle level of economic activity generates MSW at the rate of 0.5 to 0.6 kg per capita per day. As per this calculation and as per the weight done at dump-yard, daily on an average 225-250 MT of solid waste is being generated in the city which increases during the period of festivals.

The source further said, “Agartala Municipal Corporation placed more than 500 number of medium (1.1 cu meter) and large size (4.5 cu. Meter) Bins/containers by the side of major roads and in market and commercial areas. Daily more than 400 sweeping staffs sweep the roads and market areas and garbage is collected in above said bins. Also one sweeping machine is also engaged for sweeping roads where there is footpath by the side of road.”

Solid Waste thus generated is transported to the dump yard of AMC which is about 15 km away from the main city of Agartala, source said. On an average, 25 vehicles move daily twice or thrice for this purpose. As per the standard calculation about 40 vehicles make three trips for the Dump-yard. For this 280-300 no of labours from Mechanical section of AMC are engaged for lifting the garbage from the roadside and from the drains and also from various dustbins/containers. All the vehicles of Mechanical wing are installed with GPS enabled vehicle tracking system, source added.

The source also confirmed that AMC had recently procured modern SWM vehicles with the assistance from the state government which includes 3 number of 14 Cu Meter Refuge Compactors, 10 Number of 8 Cu Meter Refuge Compactors, four no of skid steer loaders, 400 no of medium containers. In addition to the existing door to door garbage collection system, AMC has started primary municipal waste collection (door to door) system. The AMC is collecting bio-Medical waste from all the government, private hospitals, nursing homes, medical colleges, pathology laboratories on daily basis. Necessary safety norms are being followed for this purpose.

“However, the city does not have any underground sewage collection and sewage treatment system. The untreated sewage finds its way into several drainage channels of the city and eventually finds its way into the Haora River, Khatakhal River, and Akhaura channel. As an impact of this, the water quality is affected severely, which is also confirmed by monitoring the physic-chemical and bacteriological parameters of the river water upstream and downstream of the City of Agartala”, source added.