Mohali, July 25: Stung by a steep fall in the 2024 Swachhta Survekshan rankings, the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MC) is launching a major revamp of its waste management system—starting with the privatisation of door-to-door garbage collection for the first time.
The city, which ranked 82nd last year among cities with populations between 50,000 and 3 lakh, plummeted to 128th in the latest survey released on July 17. Within Punjab, Mohali slid from first to 11th place among cities with over one lakh residents.
Officials pointed to the poor segregation of waste at source and substandard waste processing as key reasons behind the dismal performance. The city scored 69.93% (8,742 out of 12,500 marks) this year, a sharp decline from last year’s 82.72% (6,204.20 out of 7,500).
“For the first time, we are privatising door-to-door garbage collection and will float tenders next week,” said MC Commissioner Parminder Pal Singh. “Our aim is to implement an end-to-end, tech-enabled, efficient waste management system in line with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.”
Under the new plan, sanitation workers will conduct household sensitisation drives on how to properly segregate wet and dry waste. Every home will be assigned a QR code, and violations—such as mixing waste—will be logged with real-time, geo-tagged data through a mobile application. Repeat violations will be escalated to municipal sanitary inspectors.
Collection vehicles will be mandated to carry separate compartments for wet and dry waste, which must be delivered unmixed to Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). Penalties will apply for any mixing of waste post-collection, under the terms of a strict Service Level Agreement.
In addition to improving collection, the MC has completed the setup of two new waste processing plants at Shahimajra and Jagatpura villages. A Panchkula-based firm has been contracted to install sorting equipment at both locations. While dry waste will be processed on-site, wet waste will be diverted to a separate facility in Phase 3A.
The Shahimajra plant has a daily capacity of 40 tonnes, while the Jagatpura site can handle 80 tonnes per day. The initiative follows a Punjab and Haryana High Court order shutting down the Phase 8-B dumping ground, leaving Mohali without a designated landfill.
To ease financial strain and improve park maintenance, the MC has also opted to bring five major parks under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) management. Mohali currently has 798 parks, including 39 listed as “Special Parks.” Of these, 194 are managed by Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs). The goal is to bring 604 parks—including all Special Parks—under the CSR model to enhance upkeep and transparency.
