"This is sheer irresponsibility of Dhaka City Corporation," said an angry pedestrian. "What is the necessity of carrying waste at this time? Is DCC trying to show its efficiency? If they were really efficient, they would have collected waste on time."

Drivers of buses, private cars and CNG autorickshaws were seen trying to remain at a safe distance from the lorry, though they were in a hurry.

When contacted, acting Chief Conservancy Officer (CCO) of DCC Dewan Shah Alam said the lorry came out of workshop on that day and it was sent for clearing garbage as there was urgency of collecting waste piled up at Karwan Bazar.

Sources said the DCC is now facing serious problems in collecting and dumping garbage due to insufficient logistics as a big portion of the existing conservancy equipment are lying in workshops for repair and maintenance.

DCC sources said they have 370 trucks and container carriers which are not sufficient for the city's waste management. Around 40 percent of them always lie in the workshops.

"Only 200 to 230 trucks and container carriers are available now, which is insufficient to collect waste from about 5,000 collection points in the city," said a source.

Chief Engineer, Mechanical Engineering Division-1, DCC, Abdus Sattar, however said only 15 percent of the vehicles are now in workshops, which is not unusual.

The acting CCO said they cannot use all the logistics at a time due to some unavoidable technical problems but they are undertaking different initiatives to solve the problem.

"We are reducing the number of dustbins and garbage containers as well as collection points in the city to increase the capacity of the vehicle fleet," he said.

Although the DCC has spent Tk 9.75 crore out of sanctioned Tk 10 crore for a project for repair, maintenance and improvement of the equipment in the last three fiscal years, there is no sign of progress in the situation.

The Mechanical Engineering Division-2 of DCC is responsible for the repair and maintenance of solid waste management equipment, such as bulldozers and excavators for the disposal of waste at the dumping ground.

The sources also said that more than 50 percent of the total 46 solid waste management equipment always remain in the workshops for repair.

"The division spends more than Tk 1 crore for the repair and maintenance of bulldozers and excavators but it has failed to improve the situation," said the source.

Due to lack of a modern recycling plant, the garbage are being dumped in different landfill sites, although 80 percent of 5,600 tonnes of waste that is produced in the city is biodegradable. The conservancy officials of DCC said dependence on the two landfill sites in the city is responsible for this worse situation.

"We have started using Aminbazar landfill site recently. We are looking forward to establishing two more sites in Kamragirchar and Gulshan-Badda area. Then the situation would improve," said Dewan Shah Alam, the acting CCO.