Agra outsources door-to-door garbage collection to private firm

AGRA - Residents and visitors to Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, can hope to have a cleaner city with the local municipality outsourcing door-to-door garbage collection to a private company.

The Agra Municipal Corporation has collaborated to operate a network to lift and transfer municipal waste and domestic garbage and process it into an alternative energy source.

“An agreement between the corporation, Ultra Urban Infrateck Ltd and Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam has been signed. The Kuberpur solid waste management plant will become functional soon,” Municipal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey told IANS.

Door-to-door collection of garbage will be funded by levying user charges which will be collected by the private company. The firm will have to lift and transport at least 80 percent of the municipal garbage daily, failing which a penalty will be imposed, officials said.

According to an estimate, the city of 1.6 million generates around 750 tonnes of domestic garbage daily. The corporation has already worked out a deal with the manufacturers of petha sweets in the city for disposal of their waste material for a fee.

Similar arrangements are being worked out with other major polluters.

“The catch is whether the residents of the city would agree to pay a user charge to the company. Many are already questioning the motives of the corporation which collects house tax and various other levies from the citizens,” social activist Ravi Singh told IANS.

The corporation has continued with its anti-polythene drive, confiscating several quintals of plastic bags each day over the past fortnight.

“Now both the retailers and consumers are coming forward to support the ban. This will make a significant difference to the level of cleanliness in the city in the coming days. We have no intention of easing pressure, but will begin fining those found using polythene,” Municipal Commissioner Pandey said.