04-07-2025
What is BMC's new waste collection plan and why labour unions are opposing it
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Rs 4,000 crore tender to overhaul Mumbai's waste collection and transportation facilities through a 'service-based waste management system' has run into trouble with the labour unions who have threatened to stage a strike in protest.
Floated on May 14, the tender seeks to rope in private contractors to carry out cleaning and collection of waste through a fleet of new waste collection trucks across 22 wards.
However, the proposal has sparked concerns among unions who fear that the appointment of private contractors will jeopardise the jobs of permanent as well as contractual conservancy workers, including over 7,000 motor loaders.
At present, waste compactor vehicles are hired and run through contractors while the waste is collected through the BMC's own body of permanent as well as contractual conservancy workers.
In a tender floated on May 14, however, the civic body has proposed a plan that seeks to outsource the entire work of collecting door-to-door waste as well as clearing garbage lying in the open while also transporting the civic municipal waste collected to the disposal or processing facilities.
As per the clause, only new and closed body eco-friendly trucks with a post January-2025 registration will be permitted to ply in these wards for collection and transportation of all waste.
Essentially, the appointed contractors will be given charge of providing the new waste collection trucks, drivers as well as staff for collecting the waste.
Furthermore, the contractors will also have to provide and maintain litter bins across the wards, while also replacing the damaged community waste collection bins.
With the civic body eyeing to eventually phase out open dumping and achieve the goal of 100 per cent door-to-door garbage collection in the city, the contractors have also been given the target of eliminating waste bins from the second year of their five-year contract period.
Currently, the civic body plans to implement this model through contractors across 22 of Mumbai's 25 wards with the civic body categorising these wards in eight groups.
In three wards — L, M/West and M/East wards — the BMC will continue to operate its own fleet of garbage trucks through its own staffers.
For the unions, the plan to hire private contractors has raised concerns that permanent motor loaders and contractual workers may lose their jobs.
According to Ashok Jadhav, president of Municipal Mazdoor Union in Mumbai, of the 14,000 workers, nearly 7,000 are motor load workers who tip garbage into the trucks and these workers will then be redirected into the work of collecting garbage on the streets.
'This will create an excess of work force for one task and in the future, they will then be redirected into carrying out other jobs. If the municipal body brings tenders for area-based privatisation then and threatens the job of permanent workers, no worker will tolerate,' added Jadhav.
The union bodies have convened public meetings since June 30 and are slated to hold a vote on July 8 to determine whether they will continue their protest and stage a strike.
Even as the tender has ruffled feathers among the unions, the BMC will continue to with the bidding process, whose deadline has now been extended to July 18.
Ashwini Joshi, Additional Municipal Commissioner, said that at least 48 companies have expressed interest in the plan while 996 queries have been raised for the plan.
Allaying fears of the conservancy workers, Joshi maintained that the motor load workers will not be bereft of work as they will be rerouted towards carrying out sweeping in the second shift.
At present, the conservancy workers carry out one round of sweeping in Mumbai, with the second round generally carried out through sweepers hired on a contractual basis.
Meanwhile, the assistant engineers across the wards have been directed to communicate with the sanitation staffers at an individual level to counter the unions' stance.
