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A comprehensive study on solid waste vehicle routing and tracking — a case study on Kolkata city

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Published:
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Aims and scope

Abstract

Kolkata city generates about 3500 Metric Ton (MT) of solid waste per day. Waste collected at storage vats/containers is transported to disposal ground at Dhapa by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) departmental vehicles and hired vehicles. Collection, segregation and transportation of municipal solid waste in KMC area is unplanned and chaotic; there is no uniformity in the size of containers/open vats and the size and haulage capacity of transport vehicles. The operational efficiency of KMC transport system is about 50%, with a fleet composed of 30–35% old vehicles. KMC spends 70–75% of its budget on collection of solid wastes, 20–25% on transportation and less than 5% on disposal. KMC allocates different types of collection vehicles to different types of containers/open vats depending on waste generation at a location and compatibility of the vehicles with the storage receptacles. It was, thus, a challenge to present an acceptable, realistic solution optimising the waste vehicle routes, thus cutting down on the transportation costs and increasing overall efficiency. ArcGIS Desktop has been used to determine least cost paths for collection and transportation of wastes; while low-cost tracking methods has been attempted using ArcGIS and Garmin 72H GPS set.

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  • Video 1. Tracking Animation, available at http://www.koushikjournals.in/

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Civil Engineering Dept., BIT Mesra, Ranchi, 835215, Jharkhand, India

    Koushik Paul

  2. Civil Engineering Dept., Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, West Bengal, India

    Koushik Paul & Amit Dutta

  3. Remote Sensing Dept., BIT Mesra, Ranchi, 835215, Jharkhand, India

    Akhouri Pramod Krishna

Authors
  1. Koushik Paul
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  2. Amit Dutta
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  3. Akhouri Pramod Krishna
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Correspondence to Koushik Paul.

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Paul, K., Dutta, A. & Krishna, A.P. A comprehensive study on solid waste vehicle routing and tracking — a case study on Kolkata city. KSCE J Civ Eng 20, 137–144 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-015-0214-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-015-0214-6

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