Tamil Nadu has allocated Rs 1,609.36 crore for new solid waste collection and removal arrangements across urban local bodies, with the funding covering 21 municipal corporations, Thanjavur Corporation and 146 municipalities under three-year contracts.
The allocation was detailed in a government order issued by Gagandeep Singh Bedi, secretary of the state Municipal Administration Department, according to a report by Dinamalar. The order introduces new procedures for collecting and removing solid waste in urban local bodies.
Of the total allocation, Rs 993.08 crore has been earmarked for work in 21 municipal corporations. The remaining Rs 616.28 crore has been allocated for Thanjavur Corporation and 146 municipalities, where 21,161 workers will be deployed for solid waste collection, the report said.
The government order links the funding to contracts covering a three-year period. It does not provide, in the supplied report, a corporation-wise or municipality-wise breakdown of the allocation, nor does it specify the individual contract values or the expected start dates for each local body.
The new arrangement places the collection and removal of household and urban solid waste within a defined contract framework. For municipal corporations, the allocation is intended to support the implementation of the new procedures across 21 cities. In Thanjavur Corporation and the 146 municipalities covered by the order, the funding also provides for the use of 21,161 workers in collection operations.
The scale of the announcement makes the state’s municipal administration the central implementing authority for the programme, while the respective urban local bodies will be responsible for carrying out the collection and removal work covered by the contracts. The order, as reported, does not specify whether the contracts will replace existing arrangements or modify them.
The allocation also separates funding for municipal corporations from that for Thanjavur Corporation and the municipalities. That division indicates that the government has structured the programme around different categories of urban local bodies, although the supplied order summary does not explain the basis for the amounts or how the funding will be released.
The government order is the immediate basis for the new guidelines and expenditure. Further details on tendering, monitoring, service standards, waste-processing arrangements and implementation schedules were not included in the report. The next operational step will be the rollout of the three-year contracted solid waste collection and removal arrangements by the covered urban local bodies.
