Visakhapatnam or Vizag, the second biggest city in Andhra Pradesh,is the first in the country to have taken e-governance initiatives in early 2000. Today, many municipalities in India have replicated Visakhapatnam’s e-governance model. Not just e-governance but its overall performance in environmental sustainability has helped the Corporation bag the prestigious Euro India’s Environmentally Sustainable Cities Award (ESCA) in 2011. These days Greater Vishakapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is busy with another ambitious project that involves segregation of garbage at source. Municipal Commissioner B Ramanjaneyulu explains to CIJ, GVMC’s solid waste management project and the Corporation’s efforts in making a ‘bin-less’ city. Read More »

The sight of overflowing garbage bins is no more an issue with Panaji, capital of Goa, which started a ‘bin-less city’ campaign almost a decade ago. This is just one of the few initiatives Goa has taken to replicate successful ... Read More »

The Akshay Patra programme, the world’s largest school meal programme of a non-governmental organization, recently got an entry into the Limca Book of Records for providing hot meals to more than 1.3 million children at 800 schools, across 18 locations in eight states of India. The organisation owes a lot to its hi-tech and hygienic kitchens for the success. Read More »

Frequent and effective cleaning is the key to achieve a healthy restroom environment in a school. Clean India Journal picks up the issue with a couple of schools… Read More »

The famous temple town of South India, Tiruchirapalli, has been facing sanitation issues for long time now. The City Municipal Corporation along with a few self-help groups successfully launched a campaign to propagate sanitation, monitor residents’ behaviour and supervise maintenance ... Read More »

For many Indian women “Feminine Hygiene” products are still beyond their reach. However, the 47-year-old school dropout from Coimbatore, Arunachalam Muruganantham brought about a revolution by inventing a machine that makes low-cost feminine sanitary products. Read More »

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation was awarded the “Best City” for 2009-10 for its efforts to improve Solid Waste Management under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The Hyderabad Corporation’s integrated waste management model includes transportation of waste to transfer ... Read More »

Fabric care labels help the buyer in their purchase decision and the launderers in their wash decision Read More »

Pune “The de-centralised waste management model adopted by Pune Municipal Corporation is one of the most successful in the country. This cost effective and eco friendly model has been highly recommended by Maharashtra government,” says Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak. What ... Read More »

In the recent years there is a significant shift in handling solid waste with Municipal Corporations across the country adopting various models of disposing and recycling waste. Pondicherry Corporation has successfully adopted door-to-door collection, transportation and processing model. Coimbatore Corporation has adopted house-to-house collection model and outsourced secondary collection and processing to private parties under PPP mode. In certain other cities, the processing has been outsourced on PPP basis. Besides waste collection, various technologies like composting, bio-methanation/gasification or high-temperature incineration and waste-to-energy are being used for waste management. For example, the service provider in Coimbatore Corporation had started with compost plant, now they are seeking permission to put up a waste-to-energy plant at their own cost. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike has forked out certain areas to be cleaned by sweeping machines. All Corporations are experimenting innovative methods to collect and treat waste. Ajit Patil, Secretary, Corporation of Cochin, in an exclusive interview with Clean India Journal, talks about how solutions to keep the city clean has been successfully implemented. Read More »

Mumbai has been facing a solid waste management crisis for years. In order to move towards a sustainable future by adopting integrated solid waste management approach, the Solid Waste Management Department (SWMD) of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has joined hands with private contractors. The municipal corporation spends roughly र1160 per tonne on collection, transport and disposal of MSW. Collection and transport together constitute roughly 80% of the cost. In India, the average municipal expenditure on solid waste management is र500 to र1500 per tonne. B P Patil, Chief Engineer-SWM, MCGM, explains to Preeti Swaminathan the various projects lined up for integrated SWM. Read More »

Multiplexes today are more than just places of entertainment. Red carpet welcome, auditorium ambience, comfortable pushback chairs and hot samosas / patties, popcorn, ice-cold cola… served at your seat. But the people seem to be unconcerned about the litter they throw around. Anita Rodrigues, Vice-President of Inox Leisure Ltd ensures that the auditorium is made spic & span minutes before a show begins. Wonder how she gets it cleaned? Preeti Swaminathan narrates with interest the 10-minute cleaning scene at Inox, Mumbai. Read More »

City Corporation of Belgaum (CCB) has recently received the “Green Leaf Award” for the best municipal corporation for effective and scientific garbage disposal. The award constituted by Sukuki Exnora (Hyderabad) and assessed by ASCI (Administrative Staff College, of India), Hyderabad, ... Read More »

Encouraged by the successful experiments by the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation in installing modern e-toilets for women, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation has begun to procure these toilets for the city. Biju K, Municipal Secretary, Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, shares with CIJ the major cleanliness and hygiene initiatives he has taken since he took over charge four months back. Read More »

‘Ladies Only’: A response to nature’s call Up until five years ago, every monsoon, the little tribal village of Gothangaon in the Nagpur district of Maharashtra would use up the entire stock of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis medication issued to the ... Read More »

Travelling in a clean vehicle is probably the best way to begin a working day. RR Deshpande, Chief Manager-Traffic at Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) understands this and has put in place an effective cleaning system to give a clean bus drive to commuters. Read More »

We have problems of paan stains, overflowing sewage waste or garbage on pavements. In fact, the problems lie with the way we look at the job of cleaning. How many of us ever thought about the people who actually work ... Read More »

Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum is a haven of dry waste – huge mounds of plastic bags, papers, scraps… It is also a home to several migrant workers, ragpickers and destitute and is probably the world’s largest recycling quarters where almost ... Read More »

Cleanest City: I am proud of the city I live in. Being a well planned city, Chandigarh is one of the cleaner cities in India. And that is because the residents of Chandigarh take pride in their city and take ... Read More »

Cleanest City: Smaller cities in India like Nashik and Nagpur in Maharashtra and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh are not only well-maintained but green and clean. Mumbai needs to learn a lesson or two from these cities. Malaysia and Singapore are ... Read More »