Panaji: June 21, 2016 …. The Department of Urban Development in order to boost the efforts towards achieving Swachh Bharat Nitol Goem has sanctioned 43 numbers of Ace Hopper Tipper Vehicles to the various Municipal Councils.
The decision was taken based on the experimental exercise carried out in Ponda Municipal Council by sanctioning 7 numbers of such Vehicles for waste collection which has resulted in improvement of waste collection, transportation and disposal in the Municipal Council. The Director of Urban Development, Mr. Elvis Gomes stated that the status of waste collection in various Municipal Councils was studied through the Swachh Bharat Mission Cell of the Goa State Urban Development Agency and based on the recommendations, vehicles have been allotted to seven each to Margao and Mormugao Municipal Council, five to Mapusa Municipal Council, three each to Curchorem-Cacora, Cuncolim, Quepem, Bicholim, Sankhalli Municipal Councils, two each to Sanguem, Valpoi and Canacona Municipal Councils and one to Pernem Municipal Council
Besides the above, Ponda Municipal Council has also been allotted 2 numbers in addition to the 7 vehicles sanctioned earlier.
These vehicles can reach even remote corners of the towns and instead of collecting the waste in bins, the citizens can directly place their waste in the vehicles when it comes for door to door collection. As a result, the waste does not remain in the bins but directly gets transferred to the disposal site. Ponda Municipal Council has shown tremendous progress by using such vehicles. Mr. Gomes further added that in addition, the Municipal Councils have also been allocated grants ranging from Rs. 1.10 crores in the case of bigger Councils to Rs. 50.00 lakhs in the case of smaller Municipal Councils from 14th Finance Commission for Solid Waste Management. He added that it is for the Municipal Councils to take up the challenge now that they are armed with sufficient resources to make Swachh Bharat Mission successful. It may be recalled that each Municipal Council has already been provided with sufficient number of waste collection bins in the recent past.
