Country's cleanest city turns waste into fuel, money

Indore, November 20

The efforts taken by the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) to keep the city clean not only earn it bragging rights as India’s cleanest city year after year but also some hard cash.

Indore was adjudged the cleanest city for the fifth year in a row in the Union government’s annual survey on Saturday.

The IMC earns Rs 8 crore annually from the plants which convert waste into useful products such as bio-CNG, an official said.

The corporation employs about 8,500 sanitary workers in three shifts from 6 am to 4 am—22 hours a day—to keep the city clean.

“A new 550-ton capacity bio-CNG plant is going to be commissioned soon, which will take the civic body’s annual earnings from waste treatment to Rs 10 crore,” said Asad Warsi, the IMC’s advisor for the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan.

At present, the private companies which make bio-CNG, compost and other products by processing wet and dry waste pay about Rs 8 crore to the IMC every year, he told PTI.

“The city generates 300 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage water. Of this, 110 MLD water is reused to water public gardens, farms and also for construction activities,” Warsi said.

The cleanliness model of the city is based on 3 ‘R’s—Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

For the last six years, there are no big garbage containers in the city. About 700 vehicles with compartments to segregate six types of waste including bio-waste such as diapers and sanitary napkins collect garbage from almost every doorstep, officials said.

The IMC disposes of 600 tons each of wet and dry waste every day.

In August, Indore was also declared the country’s first ‘Water Plus’ city under the Swachh Survekshan 2021 for cleaning up the Kanh-Saraswati river and 25 small and big drains.

This was achieved, primarily, by stopping the release of sewage water into the river and drains from 1,746 public and 5,624 domestic outfalls, officials said.

“Indore has got used to being in the first place,” Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said while congratulating the city earlier in the day. — PTI