Not just a garbage van…

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… But a snazzy environment-friendly vehicle that can be tracked via satellite. Using the GPS to follow the van around the city it will be possible to ensure that our suburbs are cleaned up street by street
Bhanu Kumar
First there were the user-friendly, high quality plastic bins with wheels, imported from France, then came brand new compactor trucks for carting away garbage without spilling them on to the streets. All these new purchases have been part of the Clean Mumbai campaign, which aims to transform the city. And now, the brand new green garbage compactor trucks zooming around the suburbs will now be monitored by the Global Positioning System (GPS).

“We have a fleet of 30 compactors operating in the first shift between 6.30 am to 1 pm, 18 in the second shift between 2 pm to 9 pm and two from 10 pm to 2 pm. These vehicles go from street-to-street collecting garbage, debris, silt, fallen branches etc. The vans are supposed to go to every small lane and gully. This GPS will check their movement. This experiment is being carried out in T Ward, and will be evaluated for its effectiveness. It is now in the commissioning stage and will start off in a few weeks,” says Vinayak Bhat, assistant engineer, environment, T Ward.

The GPS is currently the only fully-functional Global Navigation Satellite System. Approximately 24 medium Earth orbit satellites transmit precise microwave signals, the system enables a GPS receiver to determine its location, speed and direction. Every 20 seconds, the signal from the GPS receiver inside the driver’s cabin is picked up by the satellite and another signal is sent to a centralised server at Worli. This is further transmitted to all ward offices and zonal offices and a report is generated at the end of each shift.

“The report is seen by the controlling officer. At every spot, the logical requisite time for collecting the garbage is also indicated. Sitting in the office, the AMC and officials at the head office can keep a watch, using a password that will be given,” adds Bhat.

Back on ground, the civic body admits that there are loopholes in this technological marvel. “It is quite likely that the vehicle will miss certain collection spots, may be with the intention of avoiding work or because the accessibility is difficult in small lanes,” admits Bhat. The remedy is that the bins will be assigned a number and vehicles collecting garbage will have a weighing machine that will indicate if, and how much, garbage is loaded.

“Supervision ensures efficient functioning. Presently, it is only the movement of the vehicles that is being monitored. In the next stage, there will be a check on the weight of the garbage collected. This system is expensive, but it is an investment that will ensure cleanliness in the long run. Once the system is installed, the expense will be justified,” avers Parag Masurkar, assistant municipal commissioner, T Ward.

“There is no longer a shortage of vehicles for collecting garbage; we have got rid of the open tempos and trucks that would collect garbage but spill some of it. These new compactors match Euro 3 standards. Collecting garbage once everyday is mandatory, but we are now collecting garbage twice or even thrice a day,” boasts Bh

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