Ensure RFID tags installed outside all 316,000 houses by Nov 30: MCG

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Thursday directed the officials of its sanitation wing to ensure that radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are installed outside all the 316,000 households across Gurugram district by November 30, said officials on Friday.

During a review meeting on sanitation works in Gurugram, MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja directed the officials to construct a control room at the Sector 39 office of MCG for real-time monitoring of door-to-door collection of waste through RFID tags. Door-to-door waste collection is a major issue in Gurugram, said officials, adding that “a MCG survey — conducted in July — revealed that 30% of the routes for door-to-door collection of waste are not being covered by its concessionaire”. MCG started installing RFID tags on the households in June this year.

“So far, 11,500 RFID tags have been installed outside households across Gurugram. We are on track to complete the deadline set by the MCG commissioner,” said Deepak Sharma, project manager of Rosmerta Technologies Limited — MCG’s concessionaire for the project.

MCG officials also said that once all the RFID tags are installed, each garbage collector would have a RFID reader. “After scanning, details such as the date and time of collection of waste would be immediately sent to MCG’s control room, and real-time garbage collection monitoring could be done through that. This will also be beneficial to ensure that garbage collectors mandatorily handover waste to a third party, or dump it at vacant areas… MCG will have records on the collection,” said a senior MCG official privy to the matter, requesting anonymity.

Another benefit of RFID tags, officials highlighted, was that MCG can quickly dispatch a garbage collector to households if a designated collector fails to turn up on a particular day. MCG officials privy to the matter said that the control room at MCG’s Sector 39 office will be set up by October this year, and that the installation of RFID tags and monitoring of waste collection are part of Phase 1 of the project.

“In the next phase, we will develop an app through which residents can also monitor their daily collection of waste, and raise complaints regarding discrepancies in the data. Furthermore, RFID tag scanners will also be upgraded to provide details on the quantity of waste collected from each household,” said another MCG official, on the condition of anonymity.