SDMC aims for 'swachhta' stars — 3 to begin with

NEW DELHI: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has chalked out an action plan to achieve 100% processing of waste by year-end. The corporation aims to climb up the ladder of Swachhta ratings and is initially aiming for three stars — the Centre will now rank municipalities under three heads: three, five and seven stars.
SDMC commissioner Puneet Goel claimed that deployment of fixed compactors to replace dhalaos was a major game changer.In fact, SDMC had registered the biggest improvement in cleanliness rankings this year, slotting in at 32nd spot against 202 in 2017. From next year, though, the Centre will give star ratings to the civic bodies. Senior officials claimed that while they were initially aiming for three stars, they would jack up efforts even further with time.

SDMC will install twin litter bins at every 50-100 metres, especially in market areas, impose heavy penalty on violators, introduce user charge for people who don’t segregate waste and emphasise on scientific waste processing of municipal solid waste. Sweeping of roads will be done twice a day and RWAs and market associations will be roped in. The civic body plans to make Najafgarh a “zero-waste zone” by installing waste processing units of 10MT capacity. There are plans to have eight decentralised composting plants across the city.
“We have awarded the work for development of a C&D waste plant at Bakarwala and plan to set up another near Tekhand. We have also awarded the work for installing a waste-to-energy plant at Tekhand, which will be the second WTE plant under SDMC,” Goel said. SDMC generates around 2,800MT of waste daily, of which 2,600MT is collected and disposed of.
The existing waste-to-energy plant has the capacity to process 1,300MT on a daily basis.
To ensure that private agencies don’t dump waste at landfills, SDMC will include a clause in the tender agreement that will make them liable to pay Rs 400 for every tonne disposed of there.