Indore (MP), Jul 29 (PTI) Amidst shortcomings in source-level waste segregation in Delhi and the mounting burden on landfill sites, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has initiated efforts to adopt Indore’s sanitation model, tailored to the capital’s specific needs.
Indore has consistently ranked first in the national cleanliness survey for eight consecutive times.
A high-level, five-member team from the MCD studied the city’s waste management system by visiting various locations in Indore over two days.
This initiative comes at a time when Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor recently expressed concern that approximately 50 per cent of the waste in the capital is not being segregated at the source, and nearly the same amount is ending up directly at landfill sites.
On July 27, Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu asked the MCD to explore the possibility of implementing the ‘Indore model’ of sanitation as a pilot project in one of Delhi’s areas.
He had expressed concerns that nearly 50 per cent of Delhi’s municipal waste is not segregated at source and an equal proportion is only dumped at landfill sites.
“Our study aims to understand how Indore has achieved such high standards of cleanliness and the role played by scientific interventions, technological innovations and human resources in the process,” MCD Additional Commissioner Arun Kumar Mishra, who is part of the visiting team, told PTI.
He, however, pointed out that Delhi and Indore differed significantly in population and the volume of waste generated every day.
Segregation of waste at source remains a major challenge in Delhi, whereas Indore’s sanitation system’s success is based on this system.
According to Mishra, the MCD caters to a population of about 2.25 crore and handles nearly 15,000 tonnes of waste every day. In comparison, Indore, with a population of around 35 lakh, generates about 1,500 tonnes of waste daily.
“The sanitation model of a city can’t be implemented in another city in the same form. But we will try to adopt the best features of Indore’s model in line with Delhi’s requirements,” he said.
Mishra said that features of the Indore model include segregation of waste at the source level as well as an ‘Integrated Command and Control Centre’ that monitors the waste management system at a micro level, detailed mapping of waste collection routes and deployment of a representative of an NGO along with each waste collection vehicle.
He said that MCD is working towards implementing the system of segregation of waste into four categories at the source level under the Solid Waste Management Rules of the year 2026.
According to Indore Municipal Corporation officials, almost all waste generated in the city is sent to processing facilities.
Mishra added that the MCD currently sends around 6,000 tonnes of waste every day to waste-to-energy plants, while the remaining waste is dumped at landfill sites.
“We are trying to eliminate dependence on landfill sites by 2029 through bio-mining, scientific innovations in waste management and new waste-to-energy plants,” he said. PTI HWP LAL NSK
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