Clean Delhi: CM flags off 50 litter pickers, 950 more soon

New Delhi: Delhi govt will deploy 1,000 battery-operated mechanical litter pickers across all 250 MCD wards and ramp up waste collection and processing infrastructure as part of a long-term plan to tackle the nearly 15,000 metric tonnes of garbage the city generates every day.

Chief minister Rekha Gupta Saturday inaugurated a fixed compactor transfer station (FCTS) in Sarita Vihar and flagged off the first batch of 50 litter pickers, along with new waste collection vehicles to be operated by 35 newly appointed women drivers.

Sanitation and proper waste management are among Delhi’s biggest challenges. The govt is working on a long-term plan to ensure that Delhi residents would not have to face waste management problems over the next 15 to 30 years. Earlier, only 6,000-7,000 metric tonnes of the nearly 15,000 metric tonnes of waste generated daily could be processed.

As a result, the city’s garbage mountains continued to grow. To address this situation, work was underway to set up new waste-to-energy plants, increase the capacity of existing plants, establish e-waste centres and install biogas plants to manage cow dung. The govt is also focussing on providing new sanitation machinery, improving infrastructure and making additional staff available,” she said.