MTNL to Provide Technological Support for Swachh Bharat Mission

In February, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Urban Development and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for developing a mobile-based solution, to track and monitor all vehicles engaged in collection and transportation of solid waste in 4041 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the country.

The agreement entailed BSNL developing an ICT Platform, for enabling effective reporting, monitoring and control of individual municipalities and on-ground workers through an innovative Web application. The ICT platform, will go live by June 2016, allowing the center to monitor fleet status by GPS based vehicle tracking system, offer MIS for waste collection and transportation, notify ULBs about vehicle breakdown and maintenance, and hence bringing about a higher level of transparency in civic administration.

Intensifying its efforts to towards technological advancement under Swachh Bharat Mission, today, the Ministry of Urban Development announced its partnership with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for implementing a vehicle tracking and monitoring system, to track and monitor all vehicles engaged in collection and transportation of solid waste across the 8 municipal areas of Delhi and Mumbai.

MTNL has agreed to develop an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Platform for enabling effective reporting, monitoring and control of individual municipalities and on-ground workers through an innovative Web application. A Memorandum of Understanding to the effect has been signed today between the Ministry of Urban Development and MTNL.

The ICT platform would be live in 2 months and would allow city municipalities of Delhi and Mumbai to monitor fleet status through a GPS-based vehicle tracking system, provide reports on daily waste collected & transported, and notify ULBs about vehicle breakdown and maintenance.

Speaking on the occasion, Praveen Prakash, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development & Mission Director - Swachh Bharat Mission, said “The ICT platform developed by MTNL will enable municipal commissioners to monitor work undertaken in their areas on a daily basis and bring a level of accountability as citizens too can track the work undertaken. I want to thank MTNL for collaborating towards the mission and we will strive to ensure that all municipalities in Delhi and Mumbai enter into agreement with MTNL for this work.”

Solid Waste Management has been one of the most crucial aspects of Swachh Bharat Mission, with a budget outlay of Rs. 37,000 crore. This includes leveraging modern technologies for Solid Waste Management, capacity augmentation of Urban Local Bodies, involving private sector, and bring behavioral and social change to encourage residents to reduce /recycle their own waste. The mission targets the achievement by 2018-19 of scientific Solid Waste Management in 4,041 cities and towns, impacting 30.6 crore people.