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Study tour to Indore gone waste, Ludhiana MC grapples to keep city clean
This contrast becomes glaring when compared to Indore, which has consistently clinched the title of the cleanest city for seventh consecutive year under the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023
Blurb: The MC officials were on a tour to the cleanest Indian city of Indore in 2020 to study solid waste management
Despite a study tour of the officials of the city municipal corporation officials to Indore three years ago to learn about solid waste management, Ludhiana authorities are grappling to implement crucial measures for the city’s cleanliness.
This contrast becomes glaring when compared to Indore, which has consistently clinched the title of the cleanest city for seventh consecutive year under the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023.
Officials who visited Indore in 2020 discovered that while Indore boasts 30 mechanical sweeping machines, Ludhiana has just one, despite having a comparable population.
Harshika Singh, MC Commissioner of Indore, highlighted their success in managing nearly 9,000 sanitation workers efficiently through biometric attendance. She cited their effective door-to-door garbage collection project, equipped with automatic command control structures that segregate waste at the source.
Singh added that they are currently working on an e-waste management plant, signing agreements with various agencies. Additionally, they transformed a legacy waste land into a city forest, planting 1.5 lakh trees.
Singh emphasized that Indore’s annual budget of ₹1,700-1,800 crore is strategically allocated to various projects, aiming to make the city clean, green, and garbage-free.
In 2020, Ludhiana MC officials studied the Indore MC model on solid waste management, but the city is still grappling with completing projects like static compactors, which are almost ready but awaiting installation at 20 locations.
Despite knowledge transfer from Indore’s successful model, Ludhiana struggles to implement waste management insights effectively. The disparity between Indore’s clean city status and Ludhiana’s persistent challenges underscores the urgent need for more efficient waste management strategies in Ludhiana.
Officials from the health branch suggested building clean toilets across the city under the Smart City mission. However, many remain poorly maintained, impacting the city’s ranking. Proposals for private maintenance of public toilets were rejected, according to MC officials.
A garbage-free Ludhiana remains a distant dream, with open dumps causing eyesores near the Scooter Market, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Damoria Bridge, Chandigarh Road, Tajpur Road, Sidhwan Canal, and other areas. Residents complain about irregular garbage collection from secondary dumps.
Despite past campaigns for source segregation and awareness, the city lags in rankings. The energy waste management model is still pending, with the DPR (detailed project report) now in progress. Ludhiana lacks sufficient quality dustbins for wet and dry waste in all city markets, unlike Indore, which adopted this practice years ago.
The bio remediation project is also not getting good response due to which around 50 acre of land on Kakka Road has heaps of garbage lying on it.
Like this, there are a number of other suggestions and projects which need to be implemented and processed early with the motive to make Ludhiana a clean and green and garbage-free city.
Additional Commissioner Paramdeep Singh said, “We have ordered four more mechanical sweeping machines and making safai karamchari attendance through UID number by face scanning. We are also installing the static compactors soon and number of different projects will be in process soon to make our city clean and green”.
