Asheesh Singh, the Indore municipal commissioner, was behind efforts that cleared 13 lakh tonnes of refuse in just six months through bio-mining.
New Delhi: As several parts of the country continue to struggle with India’s humungous garbage problem, an IAS officer in Madhya Pradesh has managed to clear over 13 lakh tonnes of refuse in just six months in the city of Indore.
A 2010-batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, Asheesh Singh, was appointed as the municipal commissioner of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) in May 2018.
He says that he turned to address the problem as even after four years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, the process of clearing a 100-acre dumpsite in Indore was moving at a snail’s pace.
“In two years, only about 2 lakh tonnes of garbage was cleared,” Singh told ThePrint.
Soon after he was appointed as the municipal commissioner, Singh identified the problem: The high cost of clearance.
Under the previous model, the government had outsourced the task to private agencies, which were charging Rs 475 per cubic metre. The whole task would have cost over Rs 60-65 crore, and taken a painfully long time to conclude.
Finally, when Singh managed to clear the dumpsite, no more than Rs 10 crore was spent on the entire process.
“When we realised that the problem was of funding, we decided to rent machines for bio-mining instead of outsourcing the whole process,” Singh said. “The machines were rented to us at a cost of Rs 7 lakh per machine per month.”
“We operated the machine for 14-15 hours daily using our own resources, and within six months, 13 lakhs of garbage was cleared,” he added.
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The process
Bio-mining refers to the process of segregating waste into biodegradable and non-biodegradable segments, and according to Singh, is “a proven technology” and has been used extensively in Indore.
“The problem was only in the model of funding… Once that was sorted out, the process was wound up within six months,” he said.
The worth of the land reclaimed by the government is about Rs 400 crore and will now be developed into a golf course.
The Indore civic body, meanwhile, is using wet waste to produce methane gas — which is being used for public buses in the city — and compost, which is given to farmers for agricultural and horticultural use, Singh said. The dry waste is used for recycling.
It is a model that is bound to be adopted across India, Singh said. “100 per cent, we will move from the per acre model to the rent model across India.”
The municipal commissioner of Chandigarh is already in touch with Singh in this regard. “Chandigarh pays Rs 750 per cubic metre for clearance right now, which is very high,” Singh said. “So they are interested in the Indore model and we have shared our tender document with them.”
According to him, the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing at the Centre too has shown interest in adopting this model throughout India.
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Innovation is always commendable and kudos to the officer for taking the initiative. However a few niggling points: How cost effective is it to hire expensive machinery and how sustainable is it when garbage production and management is not a one time activity. Second, they should re-consider developing a golf course – vey inequitable as it is not a publicly accessible property. Moreover, in today’s water crisis, grass is a guzzler of water. What about cricket/football field, parks with tress and bushes for walking, exercising, relaxing and creating a lung for the city.
The age old nexus between the officials ministers and the contractors needs to go before we see any impact of this workable thing in most parts of India.
The waste management and rain water harvesting are two domains where the government has been strangely passive, for some reason.
The most formidable task in clearing garbage in any town is clearing plastic garbage. We do not read any method used to clear the plastic garbage in Indore during year under award. If that is published it would be helpful for other towns to emulate.
Is it really possible (if Yes), then what is the technology that Indore Municipal Corporation had adopted for the Bio-remediation of their 30 Lakh Tonnes of legacy waste in just Six month time? In Bhopal it is taking almost two years time to Bio-remediate just 10 Lakh Tonnes of legacy waste at Bhanpur site.
GARBAGE HANDLING IS A VERY TEDIOUS TASK AND SOLUTION FOUND IS SUCCESSFUL MUST BE ADOPTED IN ALL BIG CITIES AND TOWNS IN INDIA.
Didn’t understand a thing about what he exactly did – except for the fact that the way it was financed was changed. However, even in that, how exactly ?? The article is very vague.
Are you done this work without taking your salary . If no you are suitable for that garbage only .
Assam Govt may also be requested to follow this model for garbage disposal in Guwahati and other urban areas.