What host can learn from the guests: Indore to Surat & Vishakhapatnam, several municipal initiatives that Gurgaon can learn from
At the national conference of urban local bodies in Manesar on Thursday, mayors and municipal corporations from across the country shared their strategies, offering valuable insights for Gurgaon to consider.
Surat generates Rs 140 crore from selling sewage-treated water to industries and has introduced artificial intelligence to detect waste dumping; Indore segregates waste into six streams at source; In Pune, ragpickers have formed a cooperative for solid waste management; in Visakhapatnam green ambulances protect trees — these are some of the best practices.
Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) commissioner Shalini Agarwal said all the cattle in the city have been RFID tagged and e-challans are issued to the owners to prevent cattle from straying on the city roads.
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Explaining how Surat is using water in a circular economy, Agarwal said, "We are providing 115 MLD of sewage-treated water to the textile industry in Surat, which is fetching us a revenue of Rs 140 crore annually.
We plan to gradually enhance it to 450 MLD. Our target is to utilise 70% of Surat's drainage water by 2030 and 100% by 2035." SMC has set up three tertiary treatment plants with capacities of 40 MLD, 35 MLD and 40 MLD.
"For Indore, waste segregation is their backbone," IMC commissioner Shivam Sharma said. The residents of Indore segregate the waste into six streams – dry, wet, domestic hazardous, plastic, sanitary and e-waste.
The vehicles for waste collection also have six compartments to transport six streams of segregated waste, ensuring 100% waste segregation. "We ensure 100% processing of waste. We keep track of even 1 gram of waste," the commissioner said.
Indore mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav emphasised public participation behind Indore's consistency in being the cleanest city in the country. "The public brought the behavioural change and made 100% segregation at source possible.
They treat their neighbourhood and ward as their home and ensure it is cleaned," Bhargav said. The IMC commissioner said Indore houses Asia's largest bio-CNG plant, capable of processing 550 tonnes per day (TPD).
The civic body is now working towards expanding its capacity with the aim of establishing it as the world's largest bio-CNG production unit.
As per an affidavit submitted by MCG to National Green Tribunal in Sept 2024, the city's waste segregation stood at a mere 15%.
It was also said that achieving 100% waste segregation would require more than a year, with the target set for Dec 2025. The corporation has also outlined its plan to increase the city's waste segregation level from the current 15% to 30% by the end of Dec 2024. MCG will have to work on waste segregation at source.
Gurgaon also lacks the vehicles which can transport segregated waste to the dumpsite.
In the Swachh Survekshan rankings 2024, Visakhapatnam secured an all-India rank of 4.
Out of a total of 9.6 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of legacy waste in Visakhapatnam, officials said they were able to bioremediate 7.2 lakh MT and reclaim seven acres of land. Greater Vishakhapatnam Municipal Corporation is also using drones for spraying larvicide to check mosquitoes and assessing vacant land across the city to bring it under the property bracket.
According to the affidavit filed by the MCG in SC on May 14, 2025, there is around 11.41 lakh metric tonnes of waste (legacy and fresh) lying unprocessed at the city's only landfill site in Bandhwari.
The city currently does not have any functional decentralised waste units unlike in other cities such as Indore, Pune etc. For waste processing, MCG has plans to establish a Waste to Torrefied Charcoal Plant at Bandhwari landfill site.
However, activists are against it.
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which has an annual budget of Rs 10,000 crore, follows a unique waste management model. PMC additional municipal commissioner Prithviraj BP said, "We have a unique model in which we have integrated waste pickers. They have formed a cooperative, which is engaged in door-to-door waste collection. The cooperative is called SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling). We have more than 3,800 SWaCH waste pickers.
" Coimbatore civic body chief said the city's 24x7 water supply project will ensure continuous water supply to the city.
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