Country's cleanest city Indore spends Rs 200 crore per year on waste management

Indore in Madhya Pradesh spends Rs 200 crore annually on waste management, officials said on Friday, a day after the state’s commercial capital was declared India’s cleanest city along with Gujarat’s Surat in the Union government’s Swachh Survekshan for 2023.

Indore was ranked the country’s cleanest city for the seventh time in a row.

”We are spending around Rs 200 crore per year on waste management. Some of the money for this expenditure comes from waste. A royalty of Rs 2.52 crore is given to Indore Municipal Corporation by a private firm for the wet waste provided to it for a bio-CNG ‘gobar dhan’ plant,” a civic official told PTI.

”The IMC makes available dry waste to another processing plant and in return gets royalty of Rs 1.43 crore annually from the firm operating it. The wet and dry waste processing plants are being run under public-private partnership. Besides, the IMC earns annual income of Rs 9 crore from selling carbon credits in the international market,” he added.

The civic body has also obtained Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) credits by recycling banned single-use plastics, the official informed.

”Conservancy cess is being gathered from 6.5 lakh houses, commercial and industrial establishments from where garbage is collected. We also fine people for littering,” the official said.

On a daily basis, a total of 850 vehicles crisscross the city and collect 692 tonnes of wet, 683 tonnes of dry and 179 tonnes of plastic waste, the official said.