Kapilas Bhuyan
Rourkela, famous as the Steel City of Odisha has been transformed over last three to five decades from an urban town of dirt, smoke and dust to a smart city in the recent time. Now, a new feather is added to the cap on December 4th, 2020 when the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik flagged off the advanced sanitation program in Sundargarh, particularly in Rourkela. The program will be implemented in Biramitrapur Municipality, Kutra and Koira blocks where mining pollution is very high, and in Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) area.
It is intended under the program to mechanize the whole gamut of cleaning the towns which have been hitherto done manually by human beings. Rourkela, having a population of 3 lacs and more, is also the second smart city of the state. The Rourkela Municipal Corporation has 40 wards and 129 slums under its ambit. Known as the leading city of the Western Odisha, Rourkela is soon going to mitigate almost all the hurdles prevalent in the sanitation management.
Now onwards, the dry and wet garbage will be segregated and collected from the doorsteps of the residents of Rourkela. Environment-friendly battery-operated vehicles will be deployed for the purpose. These BOVs will move the garbage straight to the Micro Composting Centers located at various points in the city to be processed and get manure from the wet garbage. The hard garbage will be processed to be reused.
A total number of 10 Micro Composting Centres (MCCs) are planned under the RMC to cover the city, from which 4 MCCs have got inaugurated on Friday to be functional. Rest of the MCCs will be made gradually within the next three years.
From now on, roads of the city will be cleaned mechanically. High end modern mobile Road Sweeping Machines are procured by the RMC for this purpose. Similarly, various machines like ‘Open Nala Desilting Machine’ to clean the open drains, ‘Suction-cum-Jetting Machine’ to clear the sewerage line, ‘Cesspool’ machine to evacuate sludge from the Septic Tank, ‘Fogging Machine’ to control the mosquito breeding, ‘Trawler Mounted Sanitizer and Disinfectant Machine’ to purify the public places and high end ‘De-fogging Machine’ to reduce the dust particles from the air, etc. are to be used.
Mission Shakti has come up in a big way to extend its support for the drive by engaging the SHG members as ‘Swachha Sathi’ to increase the awareness level of people about sanitation and cleanliness. The SHGs are allotted ‘Parichay Gruha’s to conduct meetings and involve the residents of all the 129 slums to extend the drive.
The advanced sanitation programme which got unrolled in Sundargarh district is being jointly funded by District Mineral Foundation, Sundargarh and RMC with a projected cost of over 69 crores. As it seems the RMC has taken the drive much seriously to advance the image of the city in the coming days.
(The writer is a Senior Journalist and National Award winning Film director.)