The Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) plans to deploy technology solutions to improve solid waste management in the state capital.
The LMC will use radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology so that bar codes can be used for door-to-door garbage collection.
Radio-frequency identification is a type of wireless communication that uses electromagnetic fields to identify or track tags, attached to objects or people, in the radio-frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The pilot project in the Geetapalli ward will begin soon, a government official said. A bar code will be put outside every house and a sanitation worker will be required to scan the same using a smartphone. The bar code will contain the GPS location of every house for easy monitoring from the control room.
Scanning the bar code will send an instant alert to the LMC control room and is likely to go a long way in checking employee truancy.
According to LMC officials, the Geetapalli ward has around 49,000 households. Bar code installation work will take three days and the smart garbage collection service will begin soon thereafter.
If the pilot project is successful, it will be extended to all 110 wards under the LMC.
At present, the civic body’s private partner has deployed around 300 workers in every ward for daily door-to-door garbage collection.
Workers who do not have smartphones will be provided with the same by the LMC, which has earmarked IN ₹1,500,000 (about US $20,780.2) for this. The phones will have to be deposited with the supervisors after the day’s work.
After a three-year wait, Lucknow’s smart city centre was formally launched last month. However, it will take a while longer for the smart city command and control centre to be fully functional.
Government officials have said it will take some time to address complaints about services like electricity, water supply, parking availability at markets, bus status, and multi-variable signboards.
The system runs on a technology termed master system integrator (MSI). The system has an in-built log system. This means that if someone registers a complaint through the command centre, it will locate the exact location of the complainant through the global positioning system. The command centre will forward the complaint to the department concerned for redressal.
The RFID project is inspired by the Pune Municipal Corporation’s waste management system. The LMC bought the technology from a Pune-based firm at IN ₹1,000,000 (about US $3,853.5).
Last month, the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL), in association with the PMC, launched the Zero Waste Project under an area-based development project of the smart city.
The data collection process for the implementation of the initiative has started. The programme will cover around 90,000 households.
Waste management solutions from the project include 100% segregation of waste at source and processing wet waste or organic waste at the local level.
The project includes GIS mapping, communication and education awareness programmes, capacity building, and scheme implementation, monitoring, and assurance for garbage processing.
