Tricycles to collect garbage in narrow lanes of Nashik's Deolali

DEOLALI CAMP, Nashik: The Deolali Cantonment Board has decided to deploy tricycles to collect garbage from the narrow lanes and other congested parts of the area where the garbage vans or the ‘ghantagadis’ are unable to enter. This is an effort by the board to keep the town clean.
Around nine tricycles will be deployed — they will move through the lanes and the by lanes of the eight wards of the Deolali Camp to collect garbage from households and commercial establishments.
Administration officer of the DCB U V Gorwadkar said, "Currently, we have six ghantagadis for the eight wards of the Deolali Cantonment Board. The tricycles would be deployed in addition to the existing garbage collection vans with the sole purpose of reaching the households along the narrow roads of the town."
The tricycles would be deployed on an experimental basis in the initial phase and if proven beneficial, they would be continued in the future. The DCB has invited quotations from manufacturers and suppliers of tricycles with two compartments of 45 litres for dry and wet waste.
The ghantagadi service was initiated by the DCB in its jurisdiction in September 2012 on an experimental basis. While the service was free of cost in the initial phase, from 2013, the board levied a fee for the service in the house cess for the residential and commercial areas, even though the garbage vans left 50% of the area uncovered.
For the residential areas, the fee for the ghantagadi service was Rs 360, while that for the commercial areas was Rs 1,800. The residents and the businessmen, who were furious over the high fee, created uproar over the issue.
Subsequently, it was decided to bring down the fee from Rs 360 to Rs 200 per year for the residential areas and Rs 1,000 for the commercial areas. However, the residents have been complaining that the ghantagadis are consistent in picking garbage from the residential areas and the garbage continues getting piled up in many areas until the local elected member or the DCB office is contacted to send the garbage vans.
Umesh Jadhav, a resident of the Hadola area of Deolali Camp, said, "It was a good move on DCB’s part to deploy tricycles to collect garbage from the households along the narrow lanes. However, the board should ensure that it does not hike the fee in the interest of the citizens."