Bengaluru GBA considers citizen wardens, GPS tracking for waste collection

Bengaluru generates around 6,500 tonnes of waste each day, but its collection fleet is falling short, Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said at a public consultation on Thursday.

The Greater Bengaluru Authority’s Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Ltd. will examine whether citizen wardens could support marshals with collection planning, monitoring and campaigns for waste segregation at source. The proposal draws on the Bengaluru Traffic Police’s traffic warden model, though the GBA has not agreed to an honorarium for volunteers.

Participants called for ward-level plans with designated in-charges and nodal officers, ward-wise performance data, and generator-level mapping. They also sought GPS devices on every collection vehicle, varied vehicle sizes for narrow roads, waste transfer stations, segregation-capacity studies and Reuse-Repair-Recycle centres.

Gowda said several auto-tippers are unfit for service and that the fleet’s capacity has declined. New garbage-collection tenders will require contractors to deploy larger vehicles, with installed collection capacity expected to exceed 9,000 tonnes. The suggested roadmap will be reviewed before another meeting in four months.