Robotic dustbins at tourist destinations in Mysuru

MYSURU: It appears as though the zeal among the city’s civic agencies, and district administration alike to exploit Mysuru’s potential as a tourist destination to its optimal extent is dovetailing rather seamlessly into the mission to keep the city spic and span. In a bid to ensure that litter does not detract from the beauty of heritage structures, and other popular tourist hubs, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has, taking a cue from Singapore, decided to install robotic dustbins at these places.
The waste generated in the city on a daily basis comes up to 400 tonnes. The figure includes the garbage accumulated in places such as Mysuru Palace, the zoo and other places that register a high density of tourists. Although 168 auto-tippers and 295 pushcarts in the service of MCC can be spotted at various corners of the city, with pourakarmikas crowding garbage into these vehicles, clearing waste remains a huge challenge for the civic agency.
At tourist hotspots – Mysore Palace and Chamundi Hills, in particular – stray articles of waste are littered, much to the chagrin of the authorities concerned, keen on preserving the image of Mysuru as a ‘Clean City’. Empty plastic bottles, containers and discarded food packets are among the items that one stumbles upon at every second step in many of these places. Adding to which, food dumped at these places ends up attracting stray animals, an unwelcome intrusion for visitors looking to soak in the beauty of the iconic spots undisturbed.
The robotic dustbins that the MCC has in mind will be equipped with an LCD screen, and sensors to monitor littering activity at tourist spots, said MCC health officer DG Nagaraj. “These dustbins, which can be found in Singapore and Saudi Arabia, are compact vehicles that can store up to three tonnes of garbage, which they will then transport to a location, from where they will be collected,” Nagaraj told TOI. He added that the civic agency had identified 15 places across the city, where tourist density was highest, and the bins would be installed at these locations.
Mysuru mayor Pushpalatha Jagganath pointed out that the idea to introduce robotic dustbins was an old proposal. Multiple private agencies, including a Bengaluru-based company, had approached MCC with the idea of installing them. “We had, at an earlier stage, decided to install them in Shantinagar. Now, it has been approved by the MCC health committee, and we have decided to install them in all the three assembly constituencies in the city – Krishnaraja, Narasimharaja and Chamaraja. MCC officials will identify the locations that are most suitable for the installation of these bins,” Pushpalatha told TOI.