BHUBANESWAR: Capital Bhubaneswar selected for the Swachh Survekshan Award 2024, will perform better in the cleanliness ranking this year and improve its position further, asserted BMC commissioner Rajesh Prabhakar Patil.
Patil said Bhubaneswar along with Aska and Chikiti urban local bodies (ULBs) in Ganjam has been selected for the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2024.
The capital city has been selected in the category of Ministerial Awardee (state-level). Last year, it had achieved a significant stride in the national ranking of cities with population of one lakh and above, improving its position from 80 in 2022 to 34 in 2023.
“We are expecting to get a big leap as a number of measures have been initiated for effective waste management in the city in the last one year,” the BMC commissioner said. Apart from launching the bio-mining project to clear legacy waste, BMC has made a 150 tonne per day (TPD) dry waste processing unit ready at Palasuni, he added.
The Smart City, Patil said, is also a zero landfill city, meaning all the waste generated in a day is being collected, segregated and processed without adding to the legacy waste. “The wet and dry waste segregation has remained more than 90 per cent,” Patil said and added that these factors will contribute to the city’s improved ranking in Swachh Survekshan this year.
Apart from Bhubaneswar, both Aska and Chikiti have been selected as the Presidential Awardees for performing well in the cleanliness survey. In 2023 Awards, Chikiti NAC had been ranked 12 among cities having population below one lakh. The other two categories of the award for 2024 include Super Swachh League Cities and Ministerial Awardee (Special Category). However, no city or town from Odisha has figured in these two categories.
Officials, however, said the Super Swachh League was for the cities that have consistently figured among top 10 in the last five years, while the Ministerial special category competition is for Gangetic towns, cantonments, special purpose vehicles (SPVs), etc.
The cities will be presented the awards at a special function to be held in New Delhi on July 17. The city rankings are also likely to be announced on that day, said an official from the Housing and Urban Development department.
Swachh Progress
Bhubaneswar to get Ministerial Award category (state-level) in SwachhSurvekshan 2024
The state capital had improved its position to 34 in 2023 from 80 in 2022
Bio-mining, setting up of a 150 TPD dry waste processing unit, zero landfill and over 90% waste segregation expected to work big for the city this time