Mumbai: Crawford Market, Lohar Chawl shops to flaunt trash bins

In the run-up to the Swachh Survekshan Abhiyan, a national cleanliness ranking exercise, shops along the maze of lanes in Bhuleshwar, Chandanwadi, Mumba Devi, Dhobi Talao and those near Crawford Market will soon install new blue-coloured trash bins.

The busy and densely populated locality has many small chawls and buildings that stand cheek by jowl. This poses a huge challenge for civic officials to manage waste. After issuing notices to nearly 500 families for dumping garbage on streets, the C ward recently pulled up shopkeepers for not keeping litter bins.

"Many shops and hawkers keep a bin, but that was not enough. So we made it compulsory asked every shopkeeper to keep a bin irrespective of the status of their licence. We have collected a fine of nearly Rs 40,000 from those who flouted garbage disposal rules," said a BMC official from the local ward.

The official said the shopkeepers have agreed to keep bins of same colour across lanes in Lohar Chawl, Zaveri Bazar, Crawford Market. To begin with, the official said, 25 bins of 25-litre capacity each will be placed outside Crawford Market.

"They all will be blue in colour and carry the tag of BMC. We will put them in front of our stalls on the roadside so that even customers can make use of them," said Imram Memon, a shopkeeper. All the hawkers made contributed to buy the trash bins.

Mirza Shavez, who sells plastic items at Lohar Chawl, said he would buy 25 blue colour bins of 10 litres each and will distribute to other shopkeepers. "It will look nice and keep the area clean."

To deal with waste dumped on housegallis – the narrow space in between two chawls – BMC had earlier issued notices to families at Abdul Rahman Street, Maulana Shaukat Ali Road, Kumbharwada and CP Tank.

Sunil Sardar, the assistant municipal commissioner of C ward, said they had to take strict action after they request to the residents fell on deaf ears. "Even after many awareness campaigns, residents continued to throw garbage and food waste out of the window. So we started sending notices to them."

BMC’s Swachh push

Civic officials say they want to transform the C ward ahead of the Swachh Ranking Survey 

Tackling Waste

• 40K Fine collected by C ward from those who flouted garbage disposal norms
• 1,717 Housegallis in the ward. These narrow lanes pose huge challenge for BMC officials
• 9 The rank of Mumbai in the latest Swachh Suvekshan Rankings carried out by Centre

Densely populated areas

The busy and densely populated neighbourhoods of C ward have many small chawls and buildings that stand cheek by jowl. This poses a huge challenge for civic officials to manage waste. Officials said their efforts at raising awareness earlier didn’t yield any positive results. Residents continued to throw garbage from their window. This forced the BMC to issue notices to nearly 500 families. They also pulled up shopkeepers, who have agreed to keep trash bins irrespective of the status of the licence of their shops, said officials.