Know how Surat city attained second rank among clean cities from 14th rank in just one year

In the country-wide survey of cleanliness, Surat has been ranked second, making the citizens proud of their city. It is interesting to note that Surat used to rank 14th in the surveys carried out for the last two years. This year, Surat has surpassed Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot in the ranking of clean cities.

Surat: Surat has been ranked second as a clean city in the country-wide survey of cities having more than one million population. This is a matter of pride from the residents of Surat city. In the previous survey, Surat was third in the first three months and 20th in the second third month. However, the Surat Municipal Corporation’s efforts of making the city clean finally paid results.

Talking about this, Surat Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani said the has several projects which help in reducing and recycling waste. The Surat Municipal Corporation started a tertiary plant to purify filthy water by treating industrial effluent water.

The Surat Municipal Corporation earns Rs 140 crore every year from treating effluent. The Municipal Corporation has such plants in all the GIDC industrial estates including at Pandesara.

A few days ago, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani had, through video conference, praised the working of the tertiary plant. Besides, there is the initiative of converting garbage into compost through the organic waste converter.

The city segregates plastic waste from, construction and demolition waste at the garbage collection station itself. The cleanliness survey has praised such initiatives of the civic body. The Municipal Corporation has also set up an ecological site at Khajod.

There has also been a reduction in the generation of waste in Surat following which the number of garbage collection containers to have been reduced.

The Surat Municipal Corporation earns from the tertiary treatment plant as much as it spends on it. Because the treatment plant, polluted water does not flow into the river. The civic body uses RFID to manage the cleanliness operation during the nights.

Talking about Surat’s achievement city mayor Dr Jagdish Patel said Surat got 5519 marks out of the total of 6000 in the cleanliness survey. It received a five-star rating in the garbage-free drive. It has received ODF++ certificate.

In all 4421 cities had taken part in the survey. Surat had uploaded over 1 lakh documents on the online survey website. Because of the lethargy of citizens in giving online feedback and documentation, Surat missed the first rank.