From shoes and clothes to plastic bottles — a day after a barrage of Mumbaikars gathered to cheer for the T20 World Cup winning Indian Cricket Team’s parade, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) collected a whopping 11,500 kg (11.5 metric tonne) of waste along the Marine Drive stretch.
A senior BMC official said, “Due to the large number of people who had arrived in the area, the cleanliness activities were hampered at several intervals. Even then, the drive was completed by 8 am, by which time, we cleared and loaded waste into one compactor, one dumper and five SCBVs. Most of the waste loaded into the small vehicles were fluffy materials, which occupies volumes but not much weight,” said a senior civic official.
In a drive that went on overnight, the civic body pressed its staffers alongside 25 labourers who had been roped in through NGOs, to ensure that the filth-laden swathes are cleared even before the morning walkers could hit the promenade on Friday.
In what brought routine life in the maximum city to a grinding halt on Thursday night, lakhs of fans thronged the stretch to catch a glimpse of the ‘Men in Blue’ set out on a 1.7-km-long victory parade from the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) to the Wankhede Stadium. Packed in like sardines, thousands more filled the Wankhade stands to cheer on their heroes, and the T20 world cup trophy, who reached the stadium around 8.30 pm.
By the time the victory-parade came to an end and the sea of fans trickled into a stream of few, the swathes along Marine Drive were left riddled with garbage ranging from plastic bottles, chip wrappers, cups, paper, clothes to even shoes and chappals, which several visitors lost in the chaos of the frenzied crowd.
Wasting no time, at 11.30 pm on Thursday, the BMC roped in 25 labourers through NGOs, who conducted the cleanliness drive during the night while civic staffers from the solid waste management department were pressed into action in the wee hours.
Working overnight, the civic staffers loaded two vehicles — one dumper and one compactor — with over nine metric tonne of waste. According to a senior BMC official, the capacity of one dumper is three metric tonne and one compactor holds up to six metric tonne of waste.
Alongside this, the civic body also filled five small closed body vehicles (SCBV) with odd articles like shoes, chappals and other recyclable materials, which were later unloaded at the Suraksha Garden. Each SCBV has a holding capacity of 500 kg. The cleanliness drive was wrapped up by 8 am on Friday.
According to the civic body, the waste from the five small jeeps which comprised recyclable materials like shoes and slippers will be sent for reprocessing.
Several citizens who flocked the Marine Drive promenade for their early morning walk took to social media and lauded the civic staffers for clearing the litter overnight.
An X user, @ivaibhavk, shared a video and wrote, “A big thank you to the sanitation workers of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation. Before the citizens who celebrated the World Cup victory parade woke up, the sanitation workers had already cleaned and tidied up the Marine Drive area. The previous night, the Marine Drive area was littered with thousands of shoes and sandals, and these workers were busy removing the garbage until dawn. By morning, they had restored Mumbai to its original state. We should all express our gratitude to these workers. Attached are two videos, one from the night and one from the morning.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 05-07-2024 at 14:51 IST
