2018: GMC has ambitious projects

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 9: Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has a long list of projects in the pipeline for implementation in 2018. Many in Guwahati may take them for granted that the projects, as usual, will only remain pipe dreams. Hope not, the metropolitan city needs timely implementation of the projects so badly.

Some of the projects which the civic body is going to execute or is in the process of executing are collection of dry and wet garbage separately, completion of the bio-methation plant at Chatribari by March 31, 2018, replacement of all non-LED streetlights with LED ones, solar illumition of all the flyovers in the city and de-siltation of city drains and river channels.

As many as 58 NGOs have been given the job to collect dry and wet garbage separately from households in the city. While dry garbage is collected on every Tuesday and Friday, wet garbage is collected in rest of the week days. The waste so collected is taken to the compost plant at Boragaon near Deepor Beel for production of manure. If run properly this can be a result-yielding and eco-friendly project.

The Rs 1.5-crore bio-methation plant under construction by a Hyderabad-based company at Chatribari in the city is going to be completed by March 31 this year. This ambitious project, if completed properly, has the capacity to collect all waste from city hotels and convert them into bio-gas for power generation. This project, if everything goes as planned, can serve two purposes – garbage disposal and production of power in the power-starved state.  The Rs 10-crore streetlight illumition project is set to replace all non-LED streetlights from the city roads with LED ones by this year.

The solar illumition plant has a budget of Rs 3 crore being implemented by Ma Kamakhya, a construction company. With this plant the civic body is going to illumite all flyovers in the city with solar lights by this year.

Drains and channels in the city are choked with silt being carried from the city hills and hills from neighbouring Meghalaya. Under the de-siltation scheme all drains and channels are going to be cleared of silt before the coming monsoon. The project is to continue for three years. This project has much to do with water-logging in the city.