The forthcoming 11th edition of Clean India Show is moving on to Ahmedabad this year after successful shows in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. The Clean India team visited the city to understand the specific cleaning needs of its various industries. Extending support to Clean India Show 2013, Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra spoke to Mohana M on the various initiatives taken by the Corporation towards maintaining a clean city and on the Clean India Show 2014.
There are many information technologies led interventions in cleaning and we could come to know about them in forums like Clean India Show. We are looking forward to it, as it is very useful for product manufacturers, technology and suppliers as well as for the potential users when they all come under one forum.
– Guruprasad Mohapatra
How do you perceive Clean India Show 2014 being organized in Ahmedabad?
We are very happy about such a Show being organized for the first time in Ahmedabad, which has become a role model for urban governance in many sectors, be it urban infrastructure or urban transport. We have also done good work on waste management front and are lifting close to 4000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily from different parts of the city and sending it to the disposal sites.
Considering the population of Ahmedabad, the amount of waste we are lifting is one of the highest in the country in terms of per capita waste generated. Waste is not left lying anywhere in the city and thus making it look cleaner compared to other places. However, waste treatment is a major issue which needs to be tackled.Traditionally, there are three broad areas of waste treatment technologies:
1. Composting – a very old technology
2. Making combustible pelts
3 Generating electricity by various methods
One could also make useful building materials out of construction debris.
Technologies related to electricity generation have raked up issues but there are a few success cases running in the country. The existing waste management technologies are borrowed from aboard and none of these is customized for Indian waste. Firstly, these technologies should work on a sustainable basis. Secondly, if at tall they work, what happens to the electricity generated? How costly is it going to be? Is there a central policy or state government policy mandating the electricity distribution company to buy the power generated from waste? And, at what rate? The rates of energy from municipal waste are more expensive to the electricity available from conventional sources, including other renewable sources like wind energy. In fact, these are the issues due to which most of these waste-to-energy projects in the country are nonstarters.
Similarly, useful products are made out of waste, say tiles – inter-locking of tiles or paving materials. There are many companies making products which are far superior in looks and in terms of durability. Hence, is there any tax concession to encourage the use of waste to produce useful products?
