RTMS to track waste collection in the state
Ongole: The municipal administration and urban development department in Andhra Pradesh is introducing a Real Time Monitoring System (RTMS) to track and record the daily waste collection from each house with the use of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.
As part of the RTMS, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has appointed Cal On Industries Limited to fix RFID tags at the door step of every house, provide a RFID reader with internet to the waste collecting worker in the urban local bodies in the state. S Govindaiah, project coordinator for the Cal On Industries Ltd, Ongole, said that the worker hangs the RFID reader on to his neck and collects the waste from the house.
When the RFID reader comes into 3 feet distance to the RFID tag, it will automatically identify the house details, including the usual amount of waste come from the house and send the data to the server instantly using the 4G network. He said that it takes about two months to complete the fixing of RFIDs and upload the data of households to the server.
Ongole Municipal Corporation Commissioner Sankranti Venkata Krishna said they have divided the city into 218 micro packets with about 300 to 350 houses in each of them. He said though they are multiple portions in the house, they will be treated as one. He told that after collecting the waste from the house, the worker segregates the waste and weight it.
The weight of total waste collected in micro packet will also be recorded through RFID reader and updated online. If any of the worker skips the house, we can easily question the worker for the reason. This improves the responsibility in the worker and the government gets an idea of how the waste collection is and what amount of waste is being collected in the state. In Ongole, we are going to use the system from May 1, he said.
K Mohan Rao, a sanitary supervisor in Ongole Municipal Corporation, said the workers used to skip lanes occasionally, but collects the waste on the next day. With this system, they have no option but to go to each house every day and collect the waste.
If there is difference in total weight of waste, we can find out that where was the wrong thing happened and question the worker and take feedback from the people. He said they have enough work force to carry on the waste collection and will recruit if necessary.
A sanitary worker, requesting anonymity, said that they are ready to perform as per the expectations of the government. He said the RFID system and the software should be made foolproof and requested the government to not give any chance of altering the data on the system to anyone in the corporation, except to the commissioner to avoid harassments from the immediate bosses.