PUNE: Various NGO’s in collaboration with PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) are putting in a lot of hard work to develop the Katraj electoral ward as a zero garbage ward. The pilot project will be launched on Wednesday.

Those who have joined hands for this effort are Local corporator Vasant More; Janwani, an NGO initiated by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture; PMC; Cummins Group; Swach cooperative; Lions Club and the Maharashtra Plastic Manufacturers Association. These are jointly working towards the target of making Katraj a garbage-free ward through separation of dry and wet garbage.

As part of the initial stage of Phase 1, volunteers from Cummins will visit households and create awareness regarding segregation of wet and dry garbage among the residents. Waste collectors from Swach will collect the segregated garbage from the locality. The next stage of the project that is Phase II would involve putting garbage to fine usage by using wet garbage to produce electricity for the ward and recycling the dry waste.

Director of Janwani, Kishore Gadre said, “Within a span of six months, we should be able to reach the objective of making Katraj, a garbage free ward. About 12 tons of garbage is generated in the ward every day”.  Adding to it, Corporator More said that the Katraj administrative ward is one of the major wards in the city and has got slums as well as bungalow societies.

More further said, “There are different types of housing societies in the ward that the garbage collection and disposal procedure becomes even more challenging”. “For collecting the garbage, we will not miss out even narrow lanes where the giant ‘ghanta gaadi’ can’t reach. Waste collectors are armed with fine equipments and the project will be launched tomorrow as it is the birth anniversary of Sant Gadge Baba”, More mentioned.

Board member of Janwani, Arun Firodia stated, “Once this project is successful, we will reach out to other areas of the city as well. The optimistic impact of the project will be there for everyone to watch”.

The Cummins group is sponsoring the Phase 1 of the project by means of payments and providing uniforms to waste collectors, etc. “Our contribution to the project will entail the awareness among the residents about the significance of the project”, said Dinesh Castellino, Vice-President, legal and company secretary, Cummins group.

Project ‘Nirmal Katraj- Dekhne Katraj’ is to be launched today that is February 23, 2011 which will be presided over by Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal and Chief Guest, Corporator, Ravindra Dhangekar.

- Anuja Bagaitkar