(Top) Drive on to clean up garbage dumps near the culvert over natural channel No. 8 and sanitation workers clean the airport dustbin. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 27: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation today launched a cleaning exercise near the Biju Patnaik Airport area beginning with a huge dumping site near a culvert on the natural drainage channel No. 8.

The place is 150 metres from the airport boundary. The dustbin in which the local fish and meat vendors used to dump wastes had been attracting carnivorous birds such as, kites.

The drive commenced with an excavator and a tipper of the corporation. The work continued from 9am to 10.30am and the workers also fished out the debris which had been blocking flow of the drain up to Pokhariput.

“Yesterday while scanning the area around the airport, we came across this place where we saw hordes of street dogs and birds. The cleaning drive was immediately ordered and the city health officer was asked to supervise it. Nearly two tonnes of garbage were collected,” said commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev.

The commissioner said the corporation market supervisors had been asked to warn the vendors against dumping waste at the site. Moreover, the chief engineer (roads) of the public works department (PWD) has been requested to construct a barricade at the place to prevent such dumping.

“The PWD officers have assured to take it up immediately as the culvert comes within the approach path of the planes coming for landing from the Baramunda end,” the municipal commissioner said.

City health officer (CHO) Ashok Kumar Panda said: “The dumping of animal waste just near the approach path of the planes has become a cause of concern for the civic authorities.”

Mrutyunjay Tripathy, a local resident, who has recently shifted to his house at Soubhagya Nagar Phase-II, said: “The culvert smells like hell. The local councillor and the ward officer should have raised an alert long ago, as the dumping activity has been going on almost since a year.”

Apart from cleaning the most vital site with a potential to attract birds along the culvert, the sanitation officers cleaned the garbage-dumping site inside the airport near the entry point. “Well we did it as a goodwill gesture. The contractor, who should to clean it, was not cleaning the spot regularly. Therefore, for a long-term agreement like express cleaning service, the airport authorities have agreed to sign a contract and when it is through, the corporation can clean the spot twice daily if required,” said Panda.

Airport director V.N. Chandran said open meat shops should be banned absolutely within 10km of the airport reference point (ARP) and along the approach path. The dumping of animal wastes near the runway is also a major cause of concern. There is a provision to send a person selling meat in the open up to six months in jail under the Airport Authority of India (AAI) Act, 1994. Therefore, the civic authorities can use the regulation to punish violators.

Regarding the waste generated inside the airport, he said though the AAI did not use incinerators to dispose the biodegradable wastes on its premises, we can have it as a stand by, if the cleaning agreement with another agency fails for a brief period. There is also a chance of bird movement due to the smoke coming out of the incinerator,” Chandran said.