Indian municipal corporations launch new waste management initiatives

Municipal corporations in India are implementing new measures to improve urban sanitation and waste management. In Guwahati, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has introduced ‘Swachh Sakhis’ to coordinate door-to-door garbage collection and collect user charges from households. This initiative, part of the Guwahati Swachh Abhiyan 2.0, involves assigning a Swachh Sakhi to every ward to facilitate coordination between residents and sanitation agencies.

In Hyderabad, the Cyberabad Municipal Corporation (CMC) plans to integrate waste management fees directly into property tax collections. The CMC is also looking into procuring approximately 3,500 Swachh autos to enhance door-to-door collection and intends to introduce a four-bin waste segregation system. Additionally, the CMC is developing a master plan to address flooding, which may involve borrowing between ₹4,000 and ₹5,000 crore for infrastructure works and implementing a ‘sponge-city’ approach to improve groundwater recharge.