Swachh Survekshan 2018: Thane gears up to score green points

Thane, which ranked 17th in the 2016 survey, ranked 116 last year

From geo-tagging public toilets, waste collection centres to stationing clean-up marshals, the Thane Municipal Corporation is determined to improve its ranking in the Swachh Survekshan 2018.

The corporation has spent Rs1.5 crore on the Swachh survey (Praful Gangurde)

The team of officials from the Centre will be coming to the city on Thursday to conduct a week-long survey to ascertain if the city is maintaining its cleanliness quotient. The corporation has installed more dustbins, stationed clean-up marshals, geo-tagged public toilets, waste collection centres and garbage collection. The roads near the station and public places also look spick-and-span. The corporation has spent Rs1.5 crore on the Swachh survey.

Thane, which ranked 17th in the 2016 survey, ranked 116 last year. The TMC has hired a new team this year to ensure that its ranking improves, along with the sanitation of the city.

“We have geo-tagged all the public toilets, so the team can see the location of all the toilets on the city map. Around 900 public toilets with 12,000 toilet seats are geo-tagged. Around 3,000 waste collection points have also been geo-tagged while 300 garbage collection vans are fitted with GPS devices,” said an official from the solid waste department.

“The team from Delhi will be in the city from February 15. We have worked towards creating awareness among residents under the Swachh Bharat campaign throughout the year. We have painted the city walls, installed posters, banners and conducted bike and cycle rallies for spreading awareness,” he said.

The team will judge the city in three parts. It will document verification where the team will check all the documents related to sanitation, waste collection and processing among others. The second part will be a physical survey of the city to check how clean it is and the third parameter will be residents’ feedback which will also include the use of the cleanliness app Janagraha.