PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, April 22: A three-member delegation from Alto Minho city in Portugal visited Jamshedpur between April 18-21.
The visit was part of the ongoing cooperation between both the cities under European Union (EU) funded International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) programme wherein the two cities had signed an agreement recently to mutually cooperate and exchange best practices in various areas of urban services including solid waste management and principles of public administration.
The group comprised of Constantino Azevedo, Sandra Estevens and Celestina Oliveira De Barros.
On first day of the visit, the Portuguese group met the team of Corporate Services, Tata Steel comprising Pranay Sinha, Varun Bajaj and Vaibhav Gupta along with Rituraj Sinha, Managing Director, Tata Steel Utilities and Infrastructure Services Ltd.
Both the teams exchanged various town management practices with specific focus on solid waste management, water management, water, waste water etc.
The group also visited various sites in the city to explore urban services such as roads, parks, water waste water, solid waste management etc.
During the visit both the teams had several rounds of discussions and brainstorming sessions on various topics such as solid waste management, water, waste water and other municipal services that Tata Steel has been providing through TSUISL to the residents of Jamshedpur.
In addition to providing a broad overview of Jamshedpur city, the officers of Tata Steel and TSUISL have also discussed the practical issues, challenges that the utility company has been facing on day to day basic to provide the services to its citizens.
The performance of Jamshedpur city against various standards and parameters regarding the delivery of various urban services was discussed and appreciated by the Portuguese team.
The team underwent some site visits which included – Municipal Solid Waste facilities, public parks, biodiversity parks and other parks in the city which is managed by a dedicated team in the horticulture department of the city.
The Portuguese team went on various site visits to understand the entire value chain of solid waste management in Jamshedpur city including – door to door collection, source segregation, transfer stations, various waste processing sites, dumping site and learnt the entire waste management cycle. In addition, the team has also visited water treatment facilities, waste water treatment facility, citizen service center (JUSCO Sahyog Kendra) and integrated command and control center.
It was finally agreed that Alto Minho will support Jamshedpur in implementing the waste deodorization technique in one of the waste management plants which may be replicated in other plants as well. All the necessary information including the technical specifications will be shared by Alto Minho team.
On the other hand, Tata Steel has agreed to share the best case of the organizational public administration system.
