KARACHI: Changyi Kangjie Sanitation Engineering Company of China has started collection and disposal of garbage from district South under 7 year accord, officials of Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) said.
The contract worth $14.20 million per annum was awarded to the company in a written work order by SSWMB on March8, 2017.
The job assignment has been awarded without approval of Chief Minister of Sindh and Local Government Department (LGD) Sindh. “This step has been taken on the ground to fulfill contract’s commitments by January 15, 2017 but we are already late in carrying out this responsibility by more than a month”, officials of SSWMB informed.
In case of further delay SSWMB will be bound by the contract to pay Rs 500 million to the company, officials said.
Chief Minister Sindh in this respect has given relaxation in bid validity period and sanctioned funds and outstanding budget for execution of the contract, SSWMB officials informed.
Moreover, SSWMB is also working for giving contract to private vendors to transport and dispose garbage to two landfill sites in districts South, East, West and Malir through an open tender which will cost around Rs 2.5 billion, the amount allocated for the task, officials said.
Chinese company will be responsible for providing garbage lifting vehicles, allied and sanitation material. The company will lift 451,590 tonnes of garbage annually.
Company has been provided two workshops for vehicle parking and maintenance work with same number of offices in district South.
Chinese company is lifting garbage from six sites of Union Councils (UCs) and two roads-Mirza Adam Khan Road and Bhatia Road. The company is bound by the contract to lift garbage from 31 UCs.
Around 21 civic authorities in Karachi are working on garbage lifting, out of these, 12 authorities would not coordinate with SSWMB as these bodies would carry out the job on their own.
Districts Central and Korangi have already ruled out the collaboration with SSWMB and would carry out this job under their respective managements.
The city produces 12,000 ton garbage per day out of which only 4,000 ton garbage is being collected and recycled. The garbage collection business has created around 10,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities.
Currently DMCs and KMC are spending around Rs 5.5 billion per annum on disposal of waste. The number of people employed stands at 4,330 persons while totally salary outlay is Rs 515 million per annum.
The experts attribute awarding of garbage lifting contract to a foreign company to the failure of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and six district municipal committees (DMCs) in terms of lifting garbage and cleaning the city.