Efforts underway to make Jamshedpur cow dung-free: Official

The Jharkhand government has initiated efforts to make Jamshedpur the "country's first" cow dung-free city, an official said.

The Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee had recently floated an open tender for the project and two city-based firms have bagged the contract following a bidding held on Friday, said JNAC Special Officer Sanjay Kumar Pandey.

Pandey claimed that the project was a first of its kind in India.

"We have been receiving constant complaints from residents against cow-shed and cattle owners about health hazards created by cow dung lying here and there across the city," he said.

Jamshedpur has over 350 cow-sheds and "all of them are illegal without any facility for disposal of cattle waste", which have been posing a serious health risk for people, the JNAC official said.

Pandey said the two firms engaged for the project will work on collecting cow dung from the city and its proper disposal on a daily basis.

The companies have been asked to conduct a survey to identify the total number of cow-sheds operating in the city, number of cattle and the estimated volume of cow dung needed to be collected per day.

Work on the project will begin from September 15 following the completion of a fortnight-long survey, he said.

The cow-shed and cattle owners will have to pay a monthly fee to the firms as fixed by JNAC in lieu of collection of the cow dung.

Besides, the companies will also have the right to sell the cow dung, make compost, etc and JNAC will collect a nominal fee from them annually, Pandey added.