mechanical litter pickers
Chief minister Rekha Gupta Saturday inaugurated a fixed compactor transfer station (FCTS) in Sarita Vihar and flagged off the first batch of 50 litter pickers, along with new waste collection vehicles to be operated by 35 newly appointed women drivers.
The govt is working on a long-term plan to ensure that Delhi residents would not have to face waste management problems over the next 15 to 30 years. Earlier, only 6,000-7,000 metric tonnes of the nearly 15,000 metric tonnes of waste generated daily could be processed. Of the 1,000 battery-operated litter pickers planned for deployment, 150 machines have arrived, with the remaining units expected within a month, Gupta said. Funds have also been provided for 100 mechanical sweeping machines. Immersion kiosks are planned across all 250 wards, with around 100 already established, Gupta said.
As a result, the city’s garbage mountains continued to grow.
The govt is also focussing on providing new sanitation machinery, improving infrastructure and making additional staff available,” she said. The chief minister said the govt was also working on improving the disposal of religious and household waste. “Sanitation and proper waste management are among Delhi’s biggest challenges. To address this situation, work was underway to set up new waste-to-energy plants, increase the capacity of existing plants, establish e-waste centres and install biogas plants to manage cow dung. The machines will collect small pieces of litter from roads and public spaces and support vacuum cleaning. Residents have been urged to deposit unwanted clothes at ‘Arpan’ centres near metro stations for recycling and reuse rather than discard them with regular garbage. Separate arrangements are also being made to collect and process broken idols and puja material. The initiative aims to prevent religious material from mixing with municipal waste.