The problem of vehicles having to go directly from wards to the dumping ground has been resolved with the civic authority approving the contract for running the refuse transfer stations (RTS) at Kurla and Mahalaxmi.
Delay in appointing the contract had resulted in the RTS at these two locations being shut down temporarily last week. This had led to smaller vehicles from the ward going directly to the Govandi or Kanjurmarg dumping grounds for disposal.
The facility at Kurla was forced to shut from March 3 to 8, which left many areas with piles of garbage on roads. The RTS at Mahalaxmi was also shut from March 8, after the contractor's term ended.
This led to several complaints from the ward, following which the contract was finally approved.
The RTS at Kurla reopened on March 9 and the one at Mahalaxmi on Wednesday.
“Jogeshwari and Andheri areas generate around 460 MT of waste. As the Kurla RTS was shut we had to divert some vehicles to a small transfer station in Versova,” said an official.
“We had received several complaints from the wards. It took 48 hours to load the waste at some places. However, we cleared the backlog by deploying additional machinery. The RTS at Kurla was reopened on March 9 and Mahalaxmi RTS started today,” said a civic official.
The city generates around 6,300 metric tons (MT) of waste daily. One-third of the waste collected from nearby wards in small vehicles is unloaded at the waste transfer facility. The waste collected at the RTS is then loaded in large compactors and transported to the dumping ground for disposal.
The waste collected from six wards from Sion-Wadala, Bandra-Santacruz east, Bandra, Khar, and Santacruz west, Kurla-Powai, Andheri, and Vile Parle east is unloaded at the RTS in Kurla. The waste collected from the Mumbai city area is unloaded at Mahalaxmi RTS.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
