Success Story of Indore in GPS-based Vehicle Tracking and Monitoring System VTMS) for Solid Waste Management (SWM)

Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has expressed its vision in the Smart City Proposal (SCP) for Indore that to “achieve zero waste status for Indore.” IMC considers sanitation and solid waste management as priority areas for the city. The city is aiming for 100 percent coverage of solid waste management. Timely clearing of secondary collection bins and transportation has been a major issue in solid waste management in Indore – around 750 open garbage dumps in the city were not cleared regularly until recently.

To ensure efficient solid waste management, a GPS based Vehicle Tracking and Monitoring System (VTMS) has been taken up as a significant step recently. The key features of the project are:

  • Online real-time monitoring of garbage vehicle movement and effective enforcement through a web-based Vehicle Tracking and Monitoring System (VTMS).
  • Web based application for real-time route adherence of garbage vehicles using data feeds
  • Installation of IP cameras at entry and exit of the landfill site
  • Integrated Weighbridge Vehicle Monitoring System (IWVMS) at the entry and exit points
  • Integration of VTMS with the Central Command and Control Centre
  • Training to stakeholders for managing the complete VTMS eco-system

Within3 months of the project becoming operational on March 1, 2017, more than 90 percent garbage vehicles (more than 700 of 750 vehicles) had already been included in the system. The project has led to real-time monitoring of garbage vehicle movement ensuring tracing of collection route and improvement in solid waste handling and operational efficiency.

The VTMS is expected to ensure regular clearance of garbage dumps and help the city to achieve ‘zero waste’ status. The system will contribute significantly to the cleanliness and public health in the city.

Indore Smart City Development Limited (ISCDL) has appointed a Master System Integrator (MSI) for Implementation of Command Control and Communication Centre. Implementation of GPS-based Vehicle Tracking and Monitoring System (VTMS) is one of the services provided by the MSI. The component for GPS-based VTMS has been tendered at a cost of INR 1.8 crore.

Jabalpur's Experience in Garbage Collection and Management Practices

As per the Census 2011, Jabalpur has a population of 1,055,525, with a decadal growth rate of 14.51 percent. The growth of urban population in large Indian cities is leading to the pressure of municipal bodies for effective services, SWM being one of the foremost challenges confronting the municipal bodies. With the availability and increasing affordability of new technologies suitable for city-level deployment, it has now become feasible for municipal bodies to deploy such technologies in the areas of basic service delivery.

Managing solid waste requires huge effort involving street/public places/households-level collection, transportation and proper disposal. However, the use of new technologies such as radio frequency, sensors, etc. offers new ways to reduce the coordination/management effort and optimize the steps required for municipal SWM.

Jabalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has initiated a Garbage Collection and Management system to ensure optimal collection, transportation and processing/disposal of wastes.

The main features of the system are:

  • Ensuring waste collection
    • Door-to-Door collection, tracking and monitoring of waste through Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags on household garbage bins.
    • Suitable collection and monitoring from the public bin (semi-underground bins) through the deployment of Bin Level Sensors (BLS)
  • Vehicle Tracking and Monitoring System (VTMS) for coordination, tracking of SWM vehicles.
  • Estimation of Solid Waste generation for planning with respect to disposal and input waste for Waste to Energy Plant

The VTMS system is being used in conjunction with VTMS solutionsand has resulted in:

  • Ensuring complete coverage of door-to-door and community collection
  • Manage refuse picking routes for SWM
  • Monitoring and tracking all JMC vehicles under SWM department;
  • Reduced human intervention in the monitoring process
  • Monitoring and tracking the refuse weight by the refuse vehicle along the route; integration of refuse transfer-station facilities with the centralized monitoring facility.

The project has enabled Jabalpur to have effective control and management on collection, transfer and disposal of solid waste; this has led to effective solid waste management starting from the household level.

Support and mobilized resources: The cost outlay for the intervention’s RFID component is INR 169.57 crore and for the VTMS component is INR 13.76 crore.