QR codes on push carts, mobile app and ‘animators’ to aid door-to-door collection

Garbage clearance is all set to go high-tech in the city. Quick response (QR) codes on push carts are the Coimbatore Corporation’s latest move to improve door-to-door waste collection. The codes will be scanned periodically to ensure that the carts complete their rounds in specific locations.

Health wing officials of the civic body have completed pasting stickers with QR codes on each of the 1,200-plus push carts that conservancy workers use in their respective wards to collect waste.

As the workers go about collecting waste from 6.30 a.m. to well past noon, ‘animators’ appointed under the Swachh Bharat scheme, during their rounds, would scan the codes using a mobile app developed for the purpose.

The app will upload online the date, time and location of the push carts. The supervising officials looking at the data at the other end will know how many conservancy workers were present for work and where they were during working hours, as the QR codes are unique, an official said.

Three visits

The first visit by the ‘animators’ will be soon after the workers report for duty in the morning; the second will be a couple of hours later, around 8.30 a.m.; and the third will be around noon. Given the time difference and the relay of geographical location of the push cart, monitoring becomes easy, an official said.