Ghaziabad civic body to earn ₹1 crore by embracing eco-friendly measures

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) has planned to monetise reduction of carbon footprints on the basis of several past activities

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) has planned to monetise reduction of carbon footprints on the basis of several past activities. It expects to get an income of ₹1 crore from the exercise. The civic agency has empanelled two consultants, one of whom will be selected to take up revenue generation activities for the GMC.

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The corporation has taken up bioremediation and clearing of legacy solid waste of about six lakh metric tonnes at Pratap Vihar and Indirapuram landfill sites, and converted about 50,000 of 62,000 regular street lights to energy efficient LED lights. in the past two years.

“Apart from these, we have planted about 1.5 lakh trees at 10 sites using the Miyawaki method. We have 20 more proposed sites where we plan to plant about three lakh more trees following the same pattern. The work will be concluded by the end of September this year. Further, we have converted 25% of our door-to-door collection vehicles to run on CNG. Now, about 75% of the vehicles are CNG-based or electric, and the rest are diesel-based,” said Mahendra Singh Tanwar, municipal commissioner, Ghaziabad.

Carbon footprint is defined as the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of activities of an individual, an organisation or a community. Common methods of reducing one’s carbon footprint include planting trees and recycling materials.

“Two consultants will be empanelled and a citywide detailed project report will be prepared on the basis of eco-friendly measures taken up by the corporation. The consultant will bear all expenses while applying to the United Nation’s Framework for Climate Change. We have planned to generate revenue through the emission trading method. Once the income is generated, the balance after deduction of expenses will be shared equally by the corporation and the consultant. Once the revenue generation takes place for the first session, we intend to do more eco-friendly activities to keep generating revenue,” Tanwar added.

He said that the GMC will be the first civic body which claims to to generate revenue. Meanwhile, the Indore Municipal Corporation has already generated revenue as a Smart City.

“The corporation cleared leagcy waste after being directed by the National Green Tribunal. With regards to the conversion of street lights, there are many dark stretches in the city where lights are still defunct. A report by the Forest Survey of India indicates that there is no growth of forest cover in the district. New initiatives are welcome, but these they yield benefits for residents as well,” said Akash Vashishtha, city-based environmentalist.