[box type=”shadow” ]Developed by Lodha Group and spread over 4500 acres, Palava City (Dombivili, Mumbai) is perhaps India’s first smart city. It is currently the home to 30,000 residents and the number is expected to go to two million in the coming years. Expectedly, the upkeep of the City is a big task. Sanu Samuel, Deputy General Manager, Handover & FM, Palava City Management Association, Lodha Group dombivali explores the systems put in place by Palava City Management Association (PCMA), that is responsible for the upkeep of the City.[/box]
The Association ensures the uninterrupted services for stable power & water supply, city security, internal & external transport, housekeeping & waste Management, horticulture, customer care and liaising with different government departments for formulation of city policies and providing highquality but cost-effective services.
The Palava housekeeping team is responsible for maintaining cleanliness at the entire city. Palava currently has 325 Residential Buildings, a five lakh square feet mall – Xperia, two schools – Lodha World School and Pawar Public School, club houses, one FIFA standard football ground and stadium, one cricket ground and stadium, over 15km of internal tarred roads, gardens, commercial spaces, parking spaces, and Palava Fire Station.
City housekeeping operations are divided into two teams of building operations and City operations.
Ergonomics: Metrics, set standards for cleaning of buildings and city spaces have been derived on the optimum use of man-machine-time to utilize resources optimally and efficiently. These metrics are assessed from time to time and revisions done based on the population increase and are based on time and motion assessments in different areas of the housekeeping operations.
The 325 residential buildings spread across the city are 7, 19 and 22 storied and come with their own challenges of cleaning and upkeep. The housekeeping team has schedules and operating procedures tailor-made to suit the demographics of each building cleaning, ensuring scheduled cleaning is carried out daily, weekly and monthly. Resident feedback is collected on overall services and room for improvement.
Waste Segregation at Source
Every household at Palava City is given green and blue bins at the time of taking possession. Segregated waste is picked up daily using black bag for wet waste and white bag for dry waste. PCMA communicates with each individual through emails and SMS regularly on waste segregation and its importance.
Segregated waste collected from households is brought to the collection points, designated for each building cluster and then brought to a central collection area. Waste is collected and transported to the Solid Waste Management Facility.
Prior to the formation of a Residents Welfare Association, each society is spring cleaned and defect identification and rectification are carried out.
City common spaces like roads, pathways, gardens, commercial areas, parking, mall, schools, football & cricket stadium and club houses are maintained by the public area housekeeping teams who ensure the city is clean and well-kept at any point of time. Roads are continuously swept to be dust free and roadside bins are cleared time to time. There is also pre- and post-clean up before and after major cultural programs in the City like festivities, concerts, and carnivals.
Pre-Post Monsoon cleaning
Monsoon is a challenge for any housekeeping operation… at Palava, the team adheres to strict pre/post monsoon cleaning schedules. Anti Algae treatment is carried out to ensure surfaces do not develop algae and regular cleaning/scrubbing ensures there is no discoloration of the stone.
Pest Control
Pest Control of all city common areas and buildings are given specific attention. Regular fumigation is done to ensure larvae control.
The horticulture team has developed an innovative idea to plant Citronella Plants around water bodies and peripheries to reduce mosquito and larvae breeding.
SWM Facility
All types of waste from the designated spots are collected and transported through COD (Closed, Odour & Drip Free) to the Solid Waste Management Facility in auto bin lifting vehicles. The facility has been built for the reception, processing, recycling and storage of waste. The facility is completely selfsustained with its own power supply.
Some waste management systems
• Segregation of mixed garbage is done through mechanical means into wet and dry fractions.
• Dry waste fraction is sorted into plastic, metal, rubber, glass, paper, cloth, cardboard, thermocol, etc. A baling machine is used for easy storage and transportation.
• Organic wet fraction is treated in 2.5 tonnes x 2 portable biogas units to generate manure and electricity from the Biogas.
• Horticulture waste is converted to manure using organic waste compacters.
• Inert disposal, Bio medical waste and E-waste are collected from the facility by licensed vendors for disposal.
Training, Rewards and Recognition
• Regular training is carried out by Diversey and other agencies for service partner teams to ensure the teams are updated about operating procedures, cleaning chemicals, equipment usage and customer feedback.
• Rewards and Recognition is conducted monthly for Service Partners to motivate and engage the team members.
• Teams are rewarded for the valuable contributions in operations, customer feedback, high levels of integrity and implementing and providing ideas to further enhance our services.
Horticulture
The 100 acres of land is currently covered by trees, gardens, and landscaping. Over 20,000 trees have been planted so far. There are 63 varieties of shrubs, creepers and 79 varieties of trees. The Horticulture team ensures that the finest gardening techniques are used to keep the City flora lush and green all year round.
Swachh Palava Council
To inculcate the values of cleanliness and care for environment, the teams work closely with the two schools Lodha World School and Pawar Public School. Children have taken mass pledges of “Pledge to Segregate” under the Swachh Bharat Mission.