In 2018, a massive garbage mountain that had grown for decades across 100 acres of land in Indore disappeared in just six months. The cleanup operation removed 13 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste and cost one-sixth of the original estimate.
The transformation came after IAS officer Asheesh Singh took charge as Municipal Commissioner of Indore Municipal Corporation in May 2018. Singh’s remarkable achievement from 2019 continues to inspire urban waste management efforts across the country. When he arrived in Indore, he found a dumpsite that had barely made progress despite two years of cleanup efforts. The housing colonies nearby faced severe pollution from the open dump, and the land remained unusable.
Who is Asheesh Singh?
Asheesh Singh was born on November 29, 1984, in Terwa village in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh. His father worked as a school teacher and encouraged him to join civil services to work for people.
Singh holds a Bachelor’s degree from CSJM University in Kanpur. He joined the Indian Administrative Service through direct recruitment in 2010 and was allotted the Madhya Pradesh cadre.
Over his career, Singh has held several key positions across the state. He served as CEO of Zila Panchayat Indore and Additional Municipal Commissioner of Ujjain before becoming Municipal Commissioner of Indore in 2018. He later worked as Collector of Ujjain, Bhopal, and Indore.
During his tenure as Ujjain Collector, he played a role in the Mahakal Lok project planning and led Covid response measures. He currently serves as Commissioner of the Ujjain Division.
Singh told The Better India in 2019, that when he joined the municipal corporation, 13 lakh metric tonnes of waste sat on the ground. The previous cleanup effort had managed to clear only 2 lakh metric tonnes in two years.
The cleanup project had started in 2016-17 when the municipal corporation outsourced the work to a contractor. However, the approach proved both slow and expensive.
The contractor charged around Rs 500 per cubic meter. Clearing the entire waste would have cost approximately Rs 65 crore, far beyond the municipal corporation’s budget. At that rate, the project would have taken years to complete.
Mountains of garbage continued piling up. Combustible materials like cloth, plastic, wood and paper would catch fire regularly, polluting the air. The environmental damage extended beyond the immediate area.
How He Solved It
Singh decided against outsourcing. Instead, he rented heavy machinery including trommels, screens, excavators and backhoe loaders. The municipal corporation operated these machines using its own resources.
The team worked in two shifts, running the machinery for 14-15 hours daily. Singh explained that bio-remediation separates soil and recyclables like plastic, metal, paper and cloth from legacy waste.
The process involved multiple steps. Workers first stabilised the topmost layer using herbal or biological sanitisers. They then raked through to pull out rags, plastic, rubber and textiles. Using horizontal screens, they removed stones, bricks and ceramics before sending segregated waste to recyclers.
Additional Commissioner Rohan Saxena and Asad Warsi from Eco Pro Environmental Services assisted Singh in the mission. The entire cleanup was completed on December 5, 2018.
The project cost less than Rs 10 crore, compared to the estimated Rs 65 crore under the outsourcing model. Recyclables went to recycling facilities. Polythene went to cement plants and road construction. The recovered soil was used to refill the ground where greenery is being developed.
About 15 percent of the waste went to a secured landfill. The reclaimed land, worth approximately Rs 400 crore, is under development as a recreational golf course.
Other cities took notice. The Chandigarh municipal commissioner contacted Singh about adopting the Indore model. The Ministry of Urban Development also showed interest in implementing this approach across India.
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