After scrapping its four-package solid waste management bidding (tender) process last week to select contractors to collect and transport garbage, Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) is now clueless about how to operate and maintain over 100 vehicles purchased by it recently for the purpose as selection of a new contractor or contractors will be delayed further.
Sources in the corporation told The Hindu that the 177 vehicles purchased by the civic body included 107 hydraulic jeep tippers, 30 tipper trucks, 16 compactors, and 24 battery-operated tricycles. Of them, more than 100 vehicles, mainly hydraulic jeep tippers, have now been delivered. The corporation is in the process of accepting the delivery of the remaining vehicles.
An official of the corporation told The Hindu that the civic body does not have drivers to operate them and does not have its own arrangement to park all of them. At present, a majority of the vehicles are on the premises of the automobile dealer who delivered them. The dealer is insisting that the civic body take them out for lack of space. They have been parked without any shelter. The chances of new vehicles getting rusted without operation and maintenance are high.
