Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Although Surat now shares the cleanest city tag with it, Indore’s unvarying commitment towards cleanliness ensured that it remains on the top in Swachhata in the country.
Public representatives, hundreds of officials, and around 8,500 sanitation workers work day-in and day-out not only to maintain cleanliness in the city but to also set new benchmarks.
And they have the backing of around 33 lakh population of the city which ensures that nobody makes their city dirty.
This gives confidence to Indore Municipal Corporation and it does things on the cleanliness front which the rest of India never thinks of. It has launched several innovative steps to deal with the garbage issue and tasted success in its efforts to remain on the top in Swachh Survekshan.
Till 2016, municipal waste was one of the major issues of Indore. IMC took up the issue and ran a massive campaign to make Indore a "garbage free city." IMC removed garbage containers and started door-to-door collection.
2017: Door-to-door garbage collection played a key role in fetching the cleanest city tag for Indore for the first time.
2018: As other cities followed Indore, it went one step ahead and started segregation of wet and dry waste at source. This helped Indore retain the top slot.
2019: IMC did away with 13 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste at the trenching ground within six months. This step stunned the entire country and Indore bagged a hat-trick of cleanest city tag.
2020: Indore banned single-use plastic and became the first city in the country to do so. Also, it installed big machines at the trenching ground to segregate 15 types of waste. The measure helped the city clinch the cleanest tag for the fourth time in a row.
2021: Indore did nullah tapping to ensure that sewerage water does not flow into Kanh and Saraswati rivers. It created six zero waste generating wards. These efforts yielded fruits at the national level.
2022: Indore built Asia’s biggest bio-CNG plant at the trenching ground. It also improved air quality by banning the use of coal and wood furnaces in restaurants, factories etc.
2023: The capacity for disposing construction and demolition (C&D) waste was doubled this year. Along with this, the 3R centres were developed in all 19 zones in the city. The capacity to make manure from silt has also increased. Charging points were setup for encouraging use of e-cars, and e-rickshaws. The result is before us.
City Report Card
100% Door-to-door collection of waste
98% Source segregation
100% Waste generation vs processing
100% Remediation of dumpsites
100% Cleanliness of residential areas
100% Cleanliness of market areas
100% Cleanliness of water bodies
100% Cleanliness of public toilets
