A major component of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is the management of solid waste to make public places in city and towns clean and pollution free. Agartala city, the capital city of Tripura has, in this respect, set an example in the country, getting huge number of staff, vehicles and processing centre engaged to make its solid waste management a success and transform the city into a clean habitation.
Only a few years back, the city people had witnessed first-hand the primary initiative of garbage collection from their homes, the corners of by-lanes and markets with the help of supplied bins and vehicles. House to house garbage collection is still being made by NGOs charging Rs. 30 for every household a month. Last two years it has witnessed a gigantic leap with the Agartala Municipal Corporation having accorded higher focus on making the city neat and clean. Presently, it has engaged more than 400 staff to sweep the roads and markets in the early morning daily; the collected garbage by them is being dumped firstly in 500 bins of small and medium size and subsequently to the garbage dumping station through special vehicles. Waste generated from houses, street vendors, passerby, vegetable and fish markets and mandis, workshop and factories is collected this way. The AMC has set up a separate system for garbage collection, medical wastes, hazardous wastes and the like from various establishments of the city.
One sweeping machine vehicle has currently been engaged for sweeping the main roads of the city. Official records have revealed that a total of 25 vehicles of AMC has been engaged for garbage collection, sweeping and transporting the garbage to the dumping yard at Debendra Chandra Nagar, 25 km away from the city. In the dumping yard, a solid waste processing centre costing Rs. 16.50 crore with the capacity of 250 tons per day has started operation to generate or produce compost and eco-bricks.
-By Shri Subhasis K. Chanda, Media & Communication Officer, PIB, Agartala
