First Garbage Transfer Station in city To come up at NMC’s Mangalwari Zone
| Date :24-Apr-2024 |
By Sagar Mohod
Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has set the ball rolling for further leveraging technology for transportation of garbage by giving nod to establishing a Transfer Station. First of the unit is sanctioned at Mangalwari Bazar in Mangalwari Zone of NMC, where the steel structure is going to be set-up. The transfer station is a place where raw garbage collected from homes and market is going to be processed first before its transportation to Bhandewadi Dumping Yard. Already, NMC has initiated segregation of garbage at doorstep, and now further processing before dumping will help it to improve the city ranking in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the experts believe. The Transfer Station was being contemplated by the civic body since last few years and tender process was finalised before onset of COVID-19 pandemic. The project was then conceptualised by Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL). However, the then Municipal Commissioner, who also was holding additional charge of NSSCDCL, unilaterally scrapped the policy putting brakes on the ambitious move on part of city fathers to process the raw garbage.
Rajesh Dufare, Executive Engineer, Mangalwari Zone, while talking to ‘The Hitavada’ confirmed the development about setting-up the Transfer Station. This is going to be first in the NMC limit. Previously, six sites were identified by NMC and that time, Mangalwari Zone was not in the list as site was not finalised. Dufare said that since the garbage vans were already bringing the material at Mangalwari Bazar site, it was natural for NMC to go for Transfer Station. As to its functioning, Dufare said that a compactor machine that will be installed at the station, where a hopper will play the main role. The machine compresses the garbage and prepares smaller bundles of bales, like that of grass are prepared, and they are then going to be loaded in trucks which will carry them to Bhandewadi Dumping Yard. During processing of garbage, continuous water supply is needed with which the hopper compresses the material and prepares the bales. The Station is going to handle 15 to 16 tonnes of garbage on a daily basis.
Dufare added that Transfer Station concept exists in all major cities of country, including Pune, and hence commissioning it in city will ensure that garbage processing, a major work at Bhandewadi Dumping Yard, will now be easier. Currently, entire city’s garbage is carried in trucks and many a times, the sight is quite ugly and foul smell continues to emanate as the trucks find their way out through maze of traffic. Hence the processed garbage transportation is going to provide relief from falling material on roads and also eliminate the foul smell. As to timeline, the NMC officer said they expect around 12 months period for commissioning the Transfer Station. Most of all at Bhandewadi Dumping Yard, the mountain of legacy waste is being slowly converted into manure and further the current practice of dumping loose garbage is adding to problem. Now NMC has set itself task of freeing the land mass used for dumping municipal solid waste as open space can then be utilised some fruitful purpose. Already one educational institute of international repute has started functioning in Bhandewadi on the earlier land used for dumping waste and second institute is also sanctioned by NMC.