Times of India: A pilot project on keeping track of the waste disposal vehicles of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) through an indigenous vehicle tracking device designed by the Science and Technology (Scitech) Park at the University of Pune will be launched next week.
“Under the JNNURM guidelines, it is mandatory for all waste disposal vehicles, especially those carrying hazardous waste, to have a vehicle tracking device,” Scitech Park director-general Rajendra Jagdale told TOI on Tuesday.
The Scitech Park, which has been working with the PCMC on various projects related to e-governance and technology integration in the civic functioning, has developed a cost-effective software meant for running the tracking device, which has also been designed by it, said Jagdale.
“We plan to begin with fitting the device to 25 vehicles engaged in waste management for the PCMC’s health department,” Jagdale said, adding that the pilot would be run for a three-month period. Eventually, it is aimed at aiding an efficient system for transportation and disposal of the civic waste, he said.
When contacted, PCMC’s health officer K Nagkumar said, “The civic initiative for vehicular tracking system was primarily driven by the central government’s guidelines and a proposal to this effect was moved by the health department.”
“We are also weighing the option of other tracking devices in the market, which have varied modules related to monitoring of travel time, distance and places visited by the vehicles, among others,” Nagkumar said.
“The PCMC currently has 14 compactors (vehicles with system for compressing the garbage collected), besides a fleet of primary and secondary garbage collection vehicles dumpers and trucks run by the civic department as well as private parties engaged for the task,” said Nagkumar. “We plan to acquire 10 more compactors soon.”
Nagkumar said, “The PCMC has four ward offices having one vehicle depot each. The idea is to have a central monitoring system that will keep track of all vehicles from the time they start from the depot to the stoppages they take, the time involved in these stoppages as well as the route taken by the vehicles whether they have deviated from the prescribed route and why. This will enable us to know which vehicle is where, and why, besides how much load it has carried throughout a day’s operation.”
According to Jagdale, vehicle tracking devices imported from countries like China, Malaysia, Japan and from Europe cost relatively higher compared to the one developed by the Scitech Park with totally indigenous means. “The cost works out to almost half at Rs 12,000 to Rs 12,500 per device compared to the Rs 20,000 to 22,000 per device in open market.” Locally available electronic and hardware support is another advantage, he added.
“We are tying up with a leading telecom company for an SMS gate, which would provide regular updates like the location, distance travelled, whether the vehicle is overspeeding or has gone off the designated route, etc,” Jagdale said. “While the design and software part has been done by the Scitech Park, the device is being manufactured by a unit at the electronic city along the Pune-Satara road.”
Disclaimer
NB: This web log is in the public domain and is presented here for public benefit, not for the purposes of business generation.