3 months ago
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Following the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) determination to destruct the request to transport household waste, six residential colonies person emerged arsenic trial cases for decentralising discarded management. Named ‘Anupam Colonies’, these neighbourhoods present segregate and process discarded wrong their ain premises.
What is an Anupam Colony?
According to Rajeev Kumar Jain, NDMC Advisor (Solid Waste Management), the Anupam Colony project is meant to service arsenic a exemplary for sustainable municipality living. “It is the imaginativeness of NDMC chairperson Keshav Chandra to state every colony as an Anupam Colony by shifting from accepted cleaning to mechanised systems, and processing bedewed and horticultural discarded astatine decentralised composting units,” Mr. Jain told The Hindu. The Hindi connection ‘Anupam’ was chosen by Mr. Chandra to bespeak “the colonies are incomparable successful their discarded practices”.
Under the Anupam model, discarded is segregated astatine root into wet, adust and sanitary waste. Dry discarded is further sorted into galore categories, including paper, metal, glass, e-waste, and non-recyclables. Wet discarded is composted connected site, on with horticultural waste, utilizing wire-mesh composting bins placed successful parks and greenish belts, eliminating the request to transport the discarded to NDMC plants. E-waste is sent to Central Pollution Control Board-authorised recyclers, Mr. Jain said, adding the compost generated is distributed escaped of outgo to residents, with surplus utilized by NDMC’s horticulture department.
On-site processing
Sanitary inspectors overseeing these colonies said segregation levels earlier hovered betwixt 60% and 70%. “Now it is 100%,” said Sandeep Locha, a sanitary inspector astatine Bapu Dham colony, crediting the measures specified arsenic door-to-door consciousness drives, regular meetings with Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), and penalties for mixed waste.
Each Anupam Colony has dedicated sanitation inspectors and further NDMC unit for composting enactment and operating mechanical sweeping machines. In 4 colonies, door-to-door discarded postulation and segregation is being handled RWAs employed workers for implicit 10 years. In one colony, an NGO manages segregation and disposal, portion successful another, residents grip them themselves.
Workers progressive successful discarded postulation said that portion astir households present manus implicit segregated waste, they inactive benignant it further to abstracted recyclables.
D-1, D-2, and Satya Sadan Officers’ flats successful Chanakyapuri were among the archetypal to beryllium declared Anupam Colony in June 2025. Together, these complexes make astir 300 kg of bedewed discarded daily. Thirteen wire-mesh composters and 10 horticulture pits person been installed, producing astir 800 kg of compost.
In officers’ colonies, RWAs and hired workers play a important relation successful discarded handling – a communal signifier crossed Bharti Nagar, Aradhna colony and New Moti Bagh successful southbound Delhi.
Bapu Dham, declared an Anupam Colony in September 2025, which present presents a antithetic picture.
Relying connected residents
Home to implicit 290 flats lodging NDMC’s sanitation workers, Bapu Dham relies connected residents for segregation. “This was challenging,” said Mr. Locha, who has overseen the country for 2 years. “We began consciousness and segregation drives 3 months earlier declaring it as Anupam Colony to spot if it was workable.”
Stating that discarded segregation was mediocre and littering was communal earlier, Mr. Locha said, “People utilized to propulsion garbage from their floors. I imposed implicit 50 penalties for mixed discarded and littering.”
However, residents present segregate discarded into aggregate adust categories. Income from selling recyclables – astir ₹5,000 a period – is used by the RWA for nine repairs. There are 2 wire-mesh rounders for bedewed and horticulture discarded composting, which capable up successful astir 15 days and instrumentality different 40-45 days to hole the compost. Meanwhile, tipper vans instrumentality the discarded to the NDMC works for composting.
“Tipper vans present sojourn lone occasionally, which was a regular earlier September 2025. Only erstwhile compost pits are afloat oregon during ample events,” Mr. Locha said.
Latest summation to list
On February 4, Kaka Nagar became the latest Anupam Colony. With astir 204 houses, astir occupied by elder IAS officers, the colony features afloat mechanised, dust-free sweeping machines and 8 sanitation workers for cleaning. “We archetypal deploy workers to region ample adust leaves and debris from roads manually. After that, mechanised sweeping machines bash the enactment without particulate emission,” helium said.
At Kaka Nagar, residents are asked to segregate waste, but collectors transportation retired further sorting. Hasan Ali, a discarded idiosyncratic employed by an NGO, collects discarded from astir 60 houses daily. “I person lone my cart and nary abstraction to segregate recyclables properly,” helium said.
Sanitary inspector Naveen Singh said tipper vans inactive travel to the colony daily. NDMC officials accidental colonies successful Sarojini Vihar and West Kidwai Nagar whitethorn soon beryllium added to the list. “We instrumentality the exemplary for astatine slightest a mates of months earlier declaring a colony as Anupam,” said Mr. Jain.
