Mumbai: The standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday passed the proposal to install 560 perforated stainless steel bin units costing `72 lakh only in commercial areas across Mumbai. The proposal was passed despite concerns raised by corporators over the safety and security issues related to the bins, their cost and maintenance.
The Congress corporator and the leader of Opposition, Ravi Raja questioned the BMC over the security issues related to the bins. “A decade ago the authority had removed similar bins for bomb threat scare. Now they are re-installing them. They are not giving any reasons, we are baffled,” exclaimed Raja.
The Congress corporator also raised a question over the cost. “When we checked online, the bins don’t cost more than Rs3000 per unit. It is shocking the BMC is purchasing it at Rs12,990 per unit. They need to answer the reason for this disparity in costs,” alleged Raja.
The Free Press Journal on January 31 had reported about the security issue related to the opaqueness of these bins. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator, Manoj Kotak warned the standing committee of bins being regularly stolen by contractors to get new contracts. “There have been instances of contractors stealing these bins to get new contracts. These are expensive and the corporation has no monitoring system in place,” said Kotak.
However, defending the proposal, the Additional Municipal Commissioner of the BMC, Vijay Singhal said, “As per the Central government norms, the bins are to be erected 50 foot apart. The BMC has identified a few places and will install the bins in these places shortly.”
The proposal was passed by the standing committee on Wednesday and would probably be discussed in the House meeting next week. These waste bins are with a capacity of 40 litres each and the entire project, including the base price of the bin set, installation and taxes, will cost around `72 lakh. The corporation is yet to identify the exact spots to install the bins, he added.
