An Ode to the Marvels of Swachha Indore, keeping Indore the Cleanest city of India.

Indore has won the Swatchhata Sarvekshan, a national level cleanliness championship held amongst cities and hosted by the central government, fourth time consecutively this year and it is no easy feat. The Indore Municipal Corporation has gained praise and appreciation in the whole country and even internationally for its progressive schemes and plans devised to maximize the concept of waste management and create a clean waste-free environment for the city. Amongst the numerous efforts that the IMC has taken up, there are some that top the charts in their innovativeness and the absolute results that they produce. Here’s a list of such Marvels of Swatchha Indore that have become a source of inspiration for the entire country.

· Bio Methanation Plant

Currently, Indore has three to four actively running Bio-Methane plants that are responsible for the processing plant and household waste and creating fuel for the city I-bus. The chief minister of Madhya Pradesh also recently laid the foundation of Asia’s largest Bio Methane plant with a 200-tonne capacity that shall be ready by April 2021. Indore’s large amounts of biodegradable waste are processed in these plants and then used to create fuel energy.

· 4 Bin initiative

The waste management department had started by educating people to use two dustbins for wet and dry waste. They further introduced a black bin for e-waste to be directly segregated and processed. A new concept of the fourth yellow bin has been introduced to dispose of hazardous waste during the COVID-19 pandemic. Masks, gloves, PPE kits, and other items that can contain the virus are to be disposed of separately.

· Mechanized Road Sweeping

Now to reduce the cost of labor and to easily assist in cleaning roads without much hassle, IMC has bought road sweeping machines that are fully mechanized. It enables quick and efficient cleaning of roads and helps to reduce the costs and time.

· Aadarsh Road

Indore has developed the Anand Bazaar Road as the Aadarsh road or model road with the purpose that in the coming future all the roads in the city shall be developed similarly. The road is equipped with footpaths, cycling strips, streetlights, clean and beautifully painted wall arts, public washrooms, street-side benches, plants and trees, and everything that can make the road a beautiful, clean and accessible one.

· Paryavaran Hiteshi Kund (for idol immersion during Ganesh Utsav)

Seeing as how the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi leads to the immersion of idols in the water bodies, causing high water pollution and accumulation of large crowds for the purpose, the IMC introduced Paryavaran Hiteshi Kunds built-in all wards of the city and other major places. Up to 96 kids were spread all over the city where handmade idols from earth clay were allowed to be immersed.

· Solid Waste Management

More than 500 specifically designed vehicles have been procured to collect solid waste from all 85 wards, and transport the same to 10 transfer stations. Each vehicle driver has been assigned his beat of collection area, along with the route map. The house owner has to divide the waste into three parts: kitchen waste, dry waste, and hazardous waste (sanitary pads, expired medicines, etc). The vehicle, too, has three compartments. The vehicle helper ensures the house owner drops the waste in the right compartments. The Wet, Dry, Hazardous waste is all sent to different processing units like the Composting plant and Bio-Methanation plant that process this waste to produce useful substances.

· Home Composting

The IMC has been encouraging people to create composts for their bio-degradable waste in their own homes, processing waste and using it in their gardens as manure. The IMC has also announced a 50% abatement of charges from the monthly user charges of door-to-door garbage collection for those who process their 100% bio-degradable waste at home.

· Trenching Ground Landfill

In 2017, 13 lakh tonnes of solid waste was lying in the form of a big mound before the commissioning of these plants. Special machines were employed to segregate metallic waste, and the remaining solid waste was pulverized and spread in the form of a sanitary landfill. It was followed by planting 1 lakh saplings. The area has now turned into a beautiful park.

· 4R Garden

With the help of some artists and NGOs, the Municipal Corporation has created special 4R gardens in the city. The special thing about these gardens is that they are decorated with waste materials and things like old bottles, and other materials that are usually discarded. With this material beautiful, bright-colored decorative materials and sports equipment have been prepared and placed all over the garden.

· Clean Back-lane

In six months, 113 back lanes have been made so clean and beautiful that they have become cleaner than the streets in front of the houses. On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the corporation inaugurated these 113 back lanes as a model and started cleaning more than 10,000 back lanes of the city. “We have decided to buy four robots (automated machines) to clean up back lanes. Tender documents for supplying the machines are being prepared and will be published in a day or two,” said Mayor-in- Council (MiC) member in charge of the Health department Munnalal Yadav.

Talking about the unique initiatives that Indore has been following in a bid to retain its title, Asad Warsi, Indore’s Swachh Bharat Mission Consultant said, “We are known as the city for adopting unique models – be it in terms of waste management, sanitation or sustainability and that is why Indore has been winning the title of India’s cleanest city for all these years.” Seeing our preparations and the working of IMC, Indore is fully prepared for winning the fifth Swatchhta Sarvekshan loaded with the slogan ‘Swatchhta ka Punch’.

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Article By: Umme Salma Saifee