BMC’s clean mission for hockey World Cup

BHUBANESWAR: With a couple of months left for the men’s hockey World Cup to start, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has launched a massive cleanliness drive in the city. From removing posters and banners on walls to sweeping dry leaves that gather under trees and repairing streetlights, the BMC sanitation team is gearing up for its clean mission and giving the city a major facelift.
The civic body has prepared a 30-point agenda to take up intensive cleaning which also includes upkeep of footpath. It has identified garbage vulnerable points (GVP) so as to guide the sanitation workers to go out there and clean the areas. The sanitary inspectors prepare compliance report to help the higher authority know if a particular area has been cleaned or not.
So far, it has cleared 612 truckloads of garbage from vulnerable points and another 300 such trips are still to be completed. There are altogether 535 garbage vulnerable points, BMC deputy commissioner (sanitation), Suvendu Sahu, said.
“The cleaning is being prioritised on a mission mode. The city needs to be presentable. Specific stretches have been identified as priority routes for carrying out makeover activities like fixing potholes, plugging other loopholes (if any) in road network, covering drains and removing hanging cables as far as possible,” Sahu added.
The BMC is also reviewing the condition of footpaths so that it can repair them wherever necessary to make them look better. The parking and no-parking zones will be earmarked with signage. The bus shelters will also be repaired wherever required and tree guards, that are an eyesore at certain places, will be removed.
While on its cleanliness drive, the BMC also wants its squad to educate vendors and its own sanitation workers not to place dustbins on the road. All public toilets will be under proper maintenance, the bicycle docks will be cleaned and rooftop advertisements will not be allowed. The BMC’s sanitation workers, who were reluctant to work at night, have now joined work and are busy cleaning the streets. During the day, manual sweeping is done while at night, both mechanical and manual sweeping are being taken up.