Minister Reveals Centre's Rs. 300 Crore Plan To Resolve Delhi's Garbage Crisis

The Central Government has approved a Rs. 300 crore plan for "visible improvement" in solid waste management in the national capital in the face of the serious garbage crisis plaguing the city.

Newly-appointed Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday that in this plan, the North, South and East Municipal Corporations of Delhi would spend Rs. 100 crore each for procuring machines for collection, transport and storage of solid waste.

They would be assisted from the Urban Development Fund of the Ministry, Mr Puri said at a conference on "Public Affairs: Effective Advocacy and Public Policy Strategies" here organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI).

"All vehicles and mechanical equipment would be procured and commissioned by the end of December this year," the Minister said.

Apart from that, the corporations would also procure decentralised treatment plants and special machines for upkeep of drains and sewers.

He added accelerated composters and bio-methanation plants to be procured under the plan would add a waste treatment capacity of 670 metric tonnes per day.

Equipments and machines to be procured include battery mounted and automated litter pickers, compacters, underground bins, mechanical road sweepers, accelerated composters, bio-methanation plants and super sucker re-cycler machines for drains and sewers, said the Minister.

"This should bring some relief in the national capital," Mr Puri said.

He said sanitation was one of the main priorities of the government and he took up the garbage issue in the national capital on his very second day in office.

The issue came to limelight on September 1 after two persons died when a huge portion of a landfill in East Delhi's Ghazipur collapsed.