Bhubaneswar: The heritage core area at Old Town here around the Shiva shrine Lingaraj and other temples has come under a special sanitation plan by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) through which sweeping has started three times in a day.
The health office of the civic body has plans for more provisioning of the dustbins and increased manpower, from 12 to 20, for better door-to-door collection of waste.
It has also outlined arrangements for bush cutting activities in and around monuments and temples, strict vigilance on the use of polythene and plastic and immediate lifting of construction and demolition (C&D) waste.
It can be mentioned here that the Ekamra Kshetra or the Old Bhubaneswar area is about 1,110 acres. Of this stretch, the heritage core area is about 145 acres. The core area has the maximum concentration of shrines and there are 191 heritage structures, including the temples, heritage water bodies, mutts, old educational institutes and medicinal plant garden. The core area model will be later replicated in other areas to make them cleaner and visitor-friendly.
Spread over BMC Ward No. 54, 55 and 60, the heritage core area has become very important for the city especially after the success of the first guided heritage tour, Ekamra Walks, and the proposed Bhubaneswar Art Trail-2018 (BAT), which would be held between November 18 and December 18. The BAT-2018 would open the entire Old Town area to an international perspective through art, heritage, and tourism and also through sports as the event is planned on the sidelines of the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup.
City health officer (CHO) Ramachandra Rout said, “Already work like sweeping the streets three times a day has started and they are being done during morning, afternoon and late evening. The additional cleaning staff would be provided by the cleaning agency in the heritage core area.”
Currently, there are six big dustbins of 3.5 tonne size, eight with 1,100 litre capacity and 12 with 240 litre facility. In the core area there will be additional eight dustbins of 240 litre size and 12 twin-dustbins of 120 litre for the sanitation plan.
While the sanitation inspector (SI) of the area would monitor the pockets on priority basis, if needed he can take the help of other sanitation inspectors of neighbouring wards.
“The sanitation workers have started the bush cutting work today and we completed a portion at Sari Deula. However, the Archaeological Survey of India should also come forward in the cleaning activity as many of its monuments remain locked. They should coordinate with us for a better view of the monuments,” the CHO added.
Rout also added that strict vigilance has been maintained in the core area starting from Sunday, in which use of polythene would be restricted, and the cleaning of plastics, polythene and other floating debris and weeds from holy lake Bindusagar, has also started by the sanitation agency PMR.
The lifting of construction and demolition waste from the heritage core area has been started in a faster way so that the entire area near Lingaraj and around Bindusagar will wear a smart look.