Gurgaon is cleaner but still far from clean after a year of SWEEPing. Here's why
Gurgaon: This time last year, the city had found itself under a garbage siege. Every other turn or roadside corner had heaps of municipal waste rotting away. Near markets and mall parking lots, at entrances to metro stations, and on the most upscale avenues, the problem had spread like rash.
This state of affairs forced the state govt to declare a solid waste exigency on June 12, 2024. Municipal management, which the corporation had utterly failed at, was handed over to a committee that was tasked with implementing Solid Waste Environment Exigency Programme (SWEEP).
This June 1, the SWEEP mandate officially came to an end. According to MCG records, the civic body spent nearly Rs 290 crore on sanitation in this period.
Is the city cleaner for it? Yes. Is the job done? No.
Though SWEEP managed to clean up last year's mess, waste collection and processing are still marked by ad hocism. Garbage dumps still pockmark the city, and construction and demolition waste lines roadsides in pockets. The corporation has not been able to meet National Green Tribunal-set targets to clear legacy waste from the Bandhwari landfill or find an alternative site.
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And it's still struggling with waste collection from households and its proper segregation.
Sanitary inspectors
for monitoring
MCG commissioner Pradeep Dahiya, who assumed office on May 7 this year, promises there will be visible improvements in three months. He says the corporation is formulating a detailed development strategy for the city and doesn't hesitate to admit that sanitation operations have been marred by "insufficient oversight".
To address this concern, MCG has requested Haryana govt to appoint 144 assistant sanitary inspectors through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam. These inspectors will be tasked with overseeing sanitation operations and ensuring consistent cleanliness standards. Additionally, they will be responsible for monitoring deployment and utilisation of vehicles and equipment.
"We are currently in the process of streamlining the system and changes will reflect within three months.
The objective of hiring sanitary inspectors is monitoring to ensure our roads are swept regularly, machinery, vehicles, etc are utilised properly, and all sanitation work is carried out efficiently. Besides this, we have tenders for door-to-door waste collection and a separate tender for clearing garbage vulnerable points.
My aim is to carry out result-driven tasks and change will be seen in three months," says Dahiya.
There are currently 5,824 sanitation workers employed by MCG for the city. The urban local bodies (ULB) department has developed a solid waste management (SWM) portal and mandated the attendance of the sanitation staff through it based on which their salaries will be disbursed.
New agencies, backup trash vans
The civic body's current focus is on hiring agencies for door-to-door waste collection. For this, three agencies are to be hired since the city will be divided into three clusters for doorstep waste collection.
The estimated cost of the project is Rs 424 crore and the duration of the contract is five years, with a two-year extension if work is satisfactory.
"Once our doorstep waste collection is robust and contractors ensure waste collected is segregated at source and dumped only at designated waste collection points, waste won't be seen dumped along roads," a senior MCG official told TOI.
ULB secretary Vikas Gupta has approved a proposal to hire 400 light commercial vehicles (LCVs), which will be deployed in each of the city's four zones for six months, or until a concessionaire is hired.
The interim arrangement, estimated to cost Rs 12 crore, comes with specific instructions — the vehicles won't be authorised to collect user charges from residents. The state govt will decide on user fee collection once a dedicated agency is appointed, according to officials.
Debris still awaits
concrete solution
For C&D (construction and demolition) waste management, MCG plans to use compact, movable processing units.
MCG will also assess the possibility of obtaining land within the Global City development zone to set up a permanent C&D waste processing facility, according to sources. Additional commissioner-1 Yash Jaluka has been assigned to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the functioning and efficiency of the city's only C&D waste processing facility at Basai.
As a temporary solution to the construction waste problem, MCG has initiated the tender process to hire an agency to clear 6 lakh MT of debris piled along roads.
For Bandhwari, MCG will prepare a comprehensive three-month plan to clear the landfill. MCG plans to identify a separate site to divert fresh waste. Two agencies, which are currently engaged in legacy waste processing, have been issued a show cause notice and warned that they will be blacklisted if work does not pick up pace. The agencies were contracted to process 14 lakh metric tonnes of waste out of which they have processed only 1.5 lakh MT.
Local processing plan
yet to move
Decentralised waste processing is also in works to streamline the city's sanitation, says Dahiya. However, no concrete step has been taken yet in that direction. According to SWM rules, 2016, local authorities should set up material recovery facilities (MRFs) or secondary storage facilities with sufficient space to sort recyclable materials. This will enable informal or authorised waste collectors to separate and collect recyclable materials such as paper, plastic, metal, glass, textile, etc from waste, reducing the overall waste load that goes to the landfill and needs to be processed.
Gauri Sarin, convener of a citizen's group called Making Model Gurugram, says she has shared a plan with govt for residential societies, plotted colonies, and commercial bulk waste generators to go for in-situ waste management. "We can significantly reduce the amount of waste monthly and yearly going to the landfill considering the large number of highrises bulk waste generators in Gurgaon. The second part of the plan that we have proposed is to have two to three CBGs (compressed biogas plants) in each zone.
These can be 50 to 100 metric tonnes capacity. If MCG provides two acres of land in each zone, these can be easily established," adds Sarin.
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