Punjab to adopt Turkish solid waste management model-Sukhbir

Istanbul/Chandigarh, August 29, 2013: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today gave the go ahead for adopting the collection and management of solid waste as well as the road cleaning system adopted in Istanbul in Punjab.

The Deputy Chief Minister, who is leading an official delegation to Turkey to study the successful Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) and the Solid Waste Management practiced in its Istanbul, today visited Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality to conduct an in depth analysis of the solid waste and road cleaning system devised by the municipality.

According to an official spokesman, the team led by Sukhbir Singh Badal went through the details of Turkish system of scientific collection and management of garbage. The team had detailed deliberations with the concerned Turkish company to explore the feasibility of launching this system in Punjab. Cevat Yaman, Head of Environment Protection and Control informed that the company had successfully operating the system in various countries including Lahore in Pakistan.

Badal said that this learning experience would be implemented in the entire State to further accelerate the cleanliness campaign of the State government besides protecting the environment. Badal also directed Secretary Local Government to immediately ensure that the solid waste collection, management and cleaning of roads were done according to the Istanbul model. He said that this will ensure door to door collection of garbage and its scientific management.

After having a long discussion with the company heads, Badal visited the streets of Istanbul to ascertain the working of machines and functioning of company staff. Cevat Yaman apprised Badal about how the densely populated Istanbul city was maintained by the authority through its system.

Later on Badal also met Vahit Balahorli and Esra Olmez, company’s senior representatives, who divulged the details of operations. They said that the company collected garbage from the door steps of the people, transferred it in a scientific manner by safely segregating bio-degradable and non-biodegradable materials. They apprised the Deputy CM that after segregation the biodegradable materials was taken to a landfill site and covered with sand. They said biodegradable material was used to run a power plant.

The Deputy CM along with team members of Punjab Officers also visited the landfill sites, the power plant and the composting plants being run by the company, ISTAC that was also handling solid waste management and cleaning of streets in Lahore. The team also understood how the non biodegradable material was used as fuel for running another power plant as this waste was of high calorific value.

The Deputy CM informed the company representatives that Punjab has already divided the state into 8 clusters for Solid Waste Management. He said that the collection and management of garbage of three out of these clusters have been outsourced while the bids for the rest of clusters were in process.

It is pertinent to mention here that Badal along with a delegation of Punjab Government was in Turkey to study the BRTS and Solid Waste Management System. The team includes P.S. Aujla, Secretary PWD, A.Venu Prasad, Secretary Housing, Ashok Gupta, Secretary Local Bodies, Anurag Aggarwal, MD PIDB, Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Chief Administrator PUDA, Ajoy Kumar Sinha, Chief Administrator GMADA and Rakesh Verma, Chief Administrator GLADA.