Tharpakna in Ranchi is still littered with garbage on Friday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

A mammoth broom brigade of 1,300 workmen, 20 dumpers and 40 tractors and wheelbarrows could not completely tidy up the capital that had kicked up a stench over the past few days.

At the end of a three-day deadline set by Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) for A2Z Waste Management Pvt Ltd to clean up the city, some vats and dustbins were still overflowing at various areas on Friday. Waste continued to litter roads at Purulia Road, HB Road, Karbala Chowk, Bahu Bazar, Circular Road, Harmu, Bariatu Road, Morabadi and Shahid Chowk. Residents agreed that although the situation had improved marginally with A2Z putting in place a cleanliness team from Wednesday, a lot more needed to be done.

“For days, our locality remained a complete eyesore with garbage spilling over here and there. Results can’t be achieved in three days. The civic body should ensure that the garbage is disposed of properly everyday,” said Umakant Mishra, a resident of Harmu.

Garbage collection had stopped since Saturday. It remained so till Tuesday, prompting deputy chief executive officer of RMC Gopaljee Tiwari to order A2Z — the agency contracted by the civic body to collect and dispose waste — to spruce up the capital in three days.

“After collecting garbage, the small vehicles gather at Madhukam-Khadgarha, where the waste is loaded on to bigger vehicles and sent to Jhiri, the dumping ground. But residents of Madhukam-Khadgarha were objecting to this system, forcing us to stop garbage collection. This led to the crisis,” explained Arun Kumar, general manager of A2Z.

The problem was sorted out after the intervention of civic authorities. Tiwari, who toured the city on Friday to take stock of the situation, did not seem to be satisfied with the cleanliness work of A2Z. “I visited Morhabadi and Bariatu areas. They are cleaning up,” was his observation. However, he added that three more places where the small garbage vehicles could assemble for reloading waste on to larger vehicles would be identified soon.

Kumar admitted that more efforts were needed to clean up Ranchi. “We will get 17 compactors and 20 small vehicles in the next two days,” he said.