MARGAO
When will the crucial garbage management projects, estimated to cost the Margao Municipal Council a whopping Rs 20 crore, see the light of the day in the city is a question doing the rounds in the corridors of the civic body, even as the councillors are bracing up to elect a new municipal chairperson on October 12.
The three works are termed crucial in official circles as they will determine how the civic body goes about the job of garbage management in the commercial capital in the days ahead.
Sadly, months have passed, but one has only heard talks of a private contractor to handle the daily wet waste or the damaged shed getting repaired and renovated. That’s not all. It’s now months since the Margao Municipal Council has been giving extensions to door-to-door waste collection to the existing contractors.
While the projects relating to waste treatment and repairs to the Sonsodo waste management shed are expected to be tendered by the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) as depository works for the Margao Municipal Council, the civic body will have to take a call on the third project – door-to-door waste collection contract.
Daily waste handling
After literally dumping the daily wet waste into the Sonsodo garbage handling facility sans treatment for over two years, the Margao municipality has come under the scanner over the delay in appointing a private contractor to handle the daily waste at Sonsodo.
The MMC has prepared estimates to hand over the waste treatment work to a private contractor at a whopping cost of Rs 6.2 crore, who will handle the waste at Sonsodo till the government-sanctioned bio-digesters take shape at the waste dumping site.
While the MMC and GWMC had initially planned to rope in a private contractor to treat the daily wet waste for a year, it has been decided to engage the private agency beyond a year, at least till the bio-digesters take shape at Sonsodo.
The GWMC will set in motion the process to float the tender to appoint the private contractor as a depository work for the Margao municipality, indicating the civic body will deposit funds amounting to Rs 6.2 crore to the corporation for execution.
Shed repairs & roads
After a portion of the Sonsodo waste management shed walls came crashing down twice earlier this year, the MMC announced plans to repair and renovate the existing shed through the GWMC at a cost of around Rs 7.40 crore. Margao municipal officials said the estimate for the repair of the Sonsodo shed has gone up as it has been decided to club the work of the Sonsodo road construction along with the shed work. Construction of the Sonsodo road has been hanging fire for over a year and a half now after the file of the project mysteriously disappeared from the civic body at the time of issuance of the work order.
MMC officials informed that the existing shed is being taken up for repairs after the walls came crashing down on two occasions earlier this year. A structural stability test has revealed no threat to the shed and can be put to use after repairs.
Door-to-door waste collection
The five crore rupees door-to-door waste collection contract has turned controversial in the civic body as the existing contractors have bagged repeated extensions for months now, thanks to political patronage. When the issue took the centre stage at the council’s August meeting, councillors, cutting across political affiliations not only gave their approval for the extension of the door-to-door waste collection services till October, but they took a historic decision to hand over the contract to the existing contractors by nomination.
The Goan understands that the question of forwarding the resolution to the government to appoint the existing two door-to-door waste collection contractors by nomination will have to be addressed by the new chairperson and the council. The MMC, however, has a clear task cut out on how to go about the door-to-door waste collection contract when the three-month extension expires this month and the municipality still hasn’t floated a fresh tender inviting bids for the five crore rupees contract.
Remediation of Sonsodo dump may be delayed further after recent rain
MARGAO
The resumption of work on the bio-remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump may be further delayed following showers in the last few days.
After the High Court set February 28, 2023, as the final deadline for the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC), Margao Municipal Council and contractor to complete remediation of the Sonsodo legacy dump, the three agencies have drawn up a plan to uncover the dump and resume remediation.
It was decided to rope in a remediation machine initially to take up the work, before deploying additional machines to complete the remediation within the deadline.
A municipal official pointed out that the remediation work will start anytime from now since a plan has been put in place on how to go about the job.
“It was planned to resume the remediation work last week, but the intermittent showers had delayed the work,” an official said, adding that the work will hopefully start in the coming week.
