KMC set to phase out 116 vehicles over 15 years old, procure & hire 97 new ones

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation will procure and hire 97 vehicles to ensure uninterrupted conservancy and allied services. The move comes in the wake of the civic body needing to phase out 116 departmental vehicles, with the National Green Tribunal prohibiting the use of vehicles run on fossil fuel aged 15 years of more.

The procurement that had received the nod of the Member, Mayor-in-Council (MMiC) on October 23, was passed at the monthly meeting of the civic body on Saturday.

Principal Secretary of the state Environment department had held a meeting in October and directed the Solid Waste Management department of KMC to phase out vehicles that have attained 15 years of age.

A majority of the vehicles that figure in the phase out list are in the conservancy category, belonging to the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department.

They include tipper trucks which are extensively used for transportation of municipal waste and dumpers that are widely used for carrying solid waste and slaughter waste (during Eid festival).

A number of water sprinkler vehicles that are used to settle the floating airborne dust particles needs to be eliminated as well, as they have crossed 15 years of age.

Mounted wreckers responsible for towing breakdown vehicles and jeep cars deployed for inspection and carrying materials have also figured

in the elimination list of the KMC.

"We had to take the decision of procuring and engaging vehicles in a short time to ensure that conservancy and allied services are not jeopardised by any means with the phasing out of 116 vehicles. Conservancy services in the city has always been our priority and we will not compromise with it under any circumstance," a senior official of the SWM department of KMC said.

Kolkata has been the first in the country to have introduced compactor stations that have gradually replaced almost all open vats in the city. Presently, there are 400 such compactors in the city.

KMC has come up with a master plan for improvement of Solid Waste Management (SWM) in Kolkata. The master plan has been prepared on the basis of SWM Rules 2016 and directions of the National Green Tribunal.

A proposal has been sent to Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a loan of Rs 1,800 crore, through Kolkata Environment Improvement Investment Programme (KEIIP) in connection with the work regarding the master plan.