Waste bins mandatory in New Town shops, stalls

Kolkata: In a bid to stop certain pockets in New Town from getting littered by waste generated from road-side shops, the New Town Development Authority has instructed all such shops in the township to keep waste bins and dump the garbage there. The NKDA authorities are also working on a plan to rehabilitate the road-side shops to a separate zone.

The authorities have started analysing why some pockets in the township are getting littered more than others. The officials are planning to use drones occasionally to keep an eye on places like markets and bus stops to find out how the litter is getting accumulated.

The officials have noticed that a patch of land near Eco Space in Action Area II gets littered soon after cleaning. The reason, an official said, is the waste material generated from the road-side food stalls situated at a distance of 200 metres.


NKDA officials recently held a series of meetings with the owners of some shops and road-side stalls and asked them to keep waste bins. The authorities will send a compactor solid waste truck to these stalls and shops every day. "The accumulated solid waste can only be dumped in the compactor truck when it arrives. A supervisor will oversee this. We will also ensure that all shops and road-side stalls put in place a proper waste disposal mechanism on their own," said an official.

An official said that there is also a plan to rehabilitate road-side food stalls in the township. The matter will be discussed in the design hackathon meet that will start from March 29.

The NKDA authorities have already taken a number of initiatives to keep the township clean as part of its smart city initiative. All the major streets are now being cleaned twice a day through mechanical sweepers whose activities are monitored through GIS applications. Compactors are used to collect solid waste from the houses. The authorities have also proposed to impose a hefty fine of Rs 50,000 on offenders for illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste on streets that choke drainage. Besides, a fine of Rs 100 will be imposed for littering at Eco Park.