Cuttack: The city's low rank in the Swachh Bharat Survey has left the civic administration sulking over its helplessness to implement its Integrated Solid Waste Management Project, 2016.

Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra said: "Had the Cuttack Municipal Corporation implemented the project before the Swachh Sarvekshan - 2018, it would have got a much better national rank."

As part of the Swachh Survekshan - 2018, the ministry of housing and urban affairs surveyed 4,203 cities across India between January and March to assess cleanliness. Cuttack was ranked 402, scoring 1,189.83 marks out of 4,000.

The criteria used for the survey were solid waste management, including door-to-door collection, processing, and disposal, open defecation free status, citizen feedback and independent observation.

"We had given our best by including most of the Swachh Bharat Mission recommendations in the integrated solid waste management project. But we lost much ground in the implementation aspect," Mohapatra rued.

However, residents are not surprised over the city getting a low rank and faring worse than it did in 2017.

"A look at the state of the city roads is enough to say why the ranking has been low," Telenga Bazar resident Pradip Sahoo said.

However, the civic administration is not ready to accept the residents' charge of poor show on the cleanliness front.

"In 2017, we were ranked 204 among 500 odd cities. In 2018, we have been ranked 402 among 4,000 odd cities. I don't see how the city's position has gone down," Mohapatra said.

The civic administration claimed that the proposed outsourcing of sweeping, collection, storage, segregation, transportation, composting and disposal of municipal solid waste at the existing land fill site was aimed at meeting Swachh Bharat Mission bench mark.

But there is very little that can be done till the outsourcing process is completed, a civic official said.

The civic body had sought approval of the outsourcing tender finalised in favour of Metro Waste Handling Private Limited (New Delhi). The company had emerged as the lowest bidder nearly six months ago but the state housing and urban development department is still on the approval.