A CMC worker cleans a street at Chandi Road and garbage dumped at Badambadi in Cuttack. Pictires by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Oct.18: The Cuttack Municipal Corporation will undertake a cleanliness drive on a war footing to ensure that the entire city looks spic and span before Dussehra.

About 20 per cent rise in solid waste generation is expected during the six-day festival that is just two days away.

The city generates garbage of 300 to 350 metric tonnes daily. But the disposal rate is not more than 70 per cent.

An estimated increase of nearly 70 metric tonnes of waste at 150 pandals during the six days of Puja are sure to aggravate the problem of waste collection for the civic administration.

The civic body’s health wing officials claimed that a special sanitation drive had been planned for Dussehra.

“About 100 extra workers will be pressed into service for sweeping lanes and bylanes across the city from Saturday,” an official said.

Over a year ago, the civic body had engaged Hyderabad-based Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (Reel) for sweeping, collection, transportation and disposal of solid waste at 36 out of the 54 wards in the city. Reel has engaged 38 tractors, 18 auto-tippers and eight dumpers to dispose of garbage collected from 150 compactor bins and 300 locality bins. Around 200 sanitary workers have been engaged for sweeping and door-to-door collection of waste via tricycles and pushcarts.

But delay in garbage collection has been a perennial problem in many localities.

“Garbage is strewn all over for the most part of the day. It is seldom collected before 9am or 10am,” said Amlan Badan Patnaik, a resident of Rajabagicha Labour Colony.

A health wing official of the civic body said: “Apart from engaging 100 extra sanitary workers to clean the city in two shifts, more vehicles will be arranged to lift garbage during Dussehra.”

“As part of the special sanitation drive, two workers will be engaged for sweeping each of the major pandals. Fourteen sanitary inspectors will monitor garbage collection and disposal during the festival,” city health officer P.K. Pradhan said.

All puja pandals have been asked to dump garbage at assigned points to ensure smooth collection of solid waste. Around 110 extra bins will be installed.

Cuttack has a population of nearly seven lakh. The city’s waste is mostly generated from about 800 hotels and restaurants, more than 200 slums, over 3,000 industrial and commercial units and 635 offices and institutions among others.