After years of negligence, the Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML) has now begun work on establishing transfer stations in all Assembly constituencies. While three are already operational, civic works at four more stations are nearing completion, according to documents accessed by The Hindu.

Karee Gowda, Chief Executive Officer of BSWML, said that land has been identified at 23 locations and work will begin soon. The documents show that construction is set to commence at 15 locations, while at the remaining eight sites, land is yet to be taken into possession from the original owners.

“We are planning to operationalise all the stations within the span of a year. A buffer of one or two months can be considered,” Mr. Gowda told The Hindu.

The documents show that funding is being provided through Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 as well as by the civic corporations. A few stations will also receive funds from the 15th Finance Commission’s NCAP allocation.

The documents further show that the identified sites range from 0.8 to 1.2 acres in size. In north Bengaluru, one of the identified locations near Attur spans about four acres. Each station is likely to have the capacity to handle 200 to 250 tonnes of waste every day.

Not enough?

However, V. Ramprasad, a solid waste management expert, argued that the proposed capacity will not be sufficient to handle Bengaluru’s waste, although he welcomed the initiative as a positive step.

“For an entire Assembly constituency, which may comprise 10 to 13 wards, one transfer station will not be enough. The BSWML has to undertake micro-level planning and establish smaller centres to make the system effective,” he said.

Bengaluru currently has 5,200 garbage tippers, which means a single transfer station would have to handle around 173 tippers. These tippers also make more than one collection round each day. Therefore, in practical terms, the proposed stations will have to be supported by an additional plan of action, Mr. Ramprasad said.