How Indore has emerged as India's cleanest city — sixth time in a row

There are reasons why Indore has been picked as India’s cleanest city — for the sixth time in a row.

The processing of 1,900 tonne of urban waste every day, which earns it crores of rupees, has helped Indore bag India’s cleanest city award for the sixth straight time, officials said here.

The results of the Centre’s annual cleanliness survey were announced on Saturday. Indore was adjudged the cleanest city, followed by Surat and Navi Mumbai.

While segregation of garbage into `dry and `wet’ categories is common, in Indore segregation happens in six categories at a collection point. The largest city of Madhya Pradesh with a population of 35 lakh, also known as the state’s commercial capital, is garbage bin-free, even though it generates 1,200 tonne of dry waste and 700 tons of wet waste daily.

“We have 850 vehicles which collect waste from households and business establishments and segregate it into six categories,” said Mahesh Sharma, cleanliness wing superintendent engineer of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC).

Discarded sanitary napkins sorted separately

The vehicles have separate compartments for different types of waste. Discarded sanitary napkins, for instance, go into a separate compartment.

This sorting at the initial stage of the collection comes in handy for efficient processing, Sharma said.

The highlight of the IMC’s waste disposal process is a bio-CNG plant which runs on the wet waste collected from the city. It is Asia’s largest such facility, according to city officials.

On February 19 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated this 550 MT per day capacity plant worth Rs 150 crore at the Devguradia trenching ground.

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It can generate 17,000 to 18,000 kg of Bio-CNG and 10 tons of organic manure.
As many as 150 city buses are being run on this Bio-CNG which is Rs 5 cheaper than commercial CNG.

The IMC earned Rs 14.45 crore from waste disposal last fiscal, including Rs 8.5 crore from the sale of carbon credits in the international market and Rs 2.52 crore as annual premium from a private company for providing waste to the bio-CNG plant.

In the current fiscal, the civic body hopes to earn Rs 20 crore from waste disposal, said Sharma.

As many as 8,500 safai mitras (sanitary workers) work in three shifts to keep Indore clean, he added.

Sewage generated in the city too is treated at three special plants and reused at 200 public gardens, farms and for construction activities, said horticulture officer Chetan Patil.

India’s cleanest towns, states

Surat and Navi Mumbai have emerged second and third, while Madhya Pradesh has become the best-performing state.

Madhya Pradesh is followed by Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra respectively in the category of best performing states. Chhattisgarh was ranked first last year.

In the state category with fewer 100 urban local bodies, Tripura has been ranked first followed by Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

While Indore and Surat retained their top positions among cities, Vijaywada lost its third spot to Navi Mumbai.

The 10 top-ranked cities with a population of more than one lakh are: Indore, Surat, Navi Mumbai, GVM Visakhapatnam, Vijaywada, Bhopal, Tirupati, Mysore, New Delhi and Ambikapur. Agra was at the bottom in the list of 100 cities in this segment.

Madhya Pradesh’s Gadarwara was at the bottom in the category of cities with fewer than one lakh population.

Maharashtra’s hill station ranked top

In the category of cities having a population of less than one lakh, Maharashtra’s Panchgani was ranked number one, followed by Chhattisgarh’s Patan (Nagar Palika) and Maharashtra’s Karhad. Haridwar was adjudged the cleanest Ganga town in the category of more than 1 lakh population, followed by Varanasi and Rishikesh.

Bijnor was ranked at the top among Ganga towns with fewer than one lakh population followed by Kannauj and Garhmukhteshwar respectively.

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In the survey, Maharashtra’s Deolali was adjudged the country’s cleanest Cantonment Board, followed by Ahmedabad and Mhow (Madhya Pradesh).

The New Delhi Municipal Council area was ranked first in the “countrys cleanest small city” category, having a population between 1 lakh and 3 lakh.

Noida emerged as the country’s “best self-sustainable medium city” in the category of 3-10 lakh population.

Tirupati has bagged the first award in the category of Safaimitra Surakshit Sahar.

Chandigarh has secured the first position in the category of “Fastest Mover State/National Capital or UT” while Vijayawada has emerged as the winner in the category of “Cleanest State/National Capital or UT”.

In the category of “Best City in Maximum Citizens Participation” with more than 1 lakh population, Ujjain has been ranked first.

(With Agency inputs)