The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) picked up a huge 11,500 kg (11.5 metric tonnes) of trash along Marine Drive the day after a huge crowd of people came to cheer on the Indian Cricket Team’s T20 World Cup win. The trash included shoes, clothes, and plastic bottles.
A top BMC official said, “The activities to clean up were slowed down several times because so many people had come to the area.” Even so, the drive was over by 8 a.m., and by that time, we had cleared the trash and put it in one compactor, one dumper, and five SCBVs. “Most of the trash that was put into the small trucks was fluffy stuff that takes up space but doesn’t weigh much,” said a top city official.
Overnight drive
The local body pushed 100 employees, including labourers, to clean up the filthy areas overnight, so they would be ready for Friday morning walkers.
Everyday life in the biggest city came to a stop on Thursday night as lakhs of fans flocked to the area to see the “Men in Blue” start their 1.7-km-long victory parade from the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) to the Wankhede Stadium. Many more people crowded into the Wankhade stands to cheer on their stars and the T20 World Cup trophy, which arrived at the stadium around 8:30 pm.
What the fans left behind
Fans turned from a sea to a stream of a few by the end of the victory parade. Along Marine Drive, the areas were littered with trash, including plastic bottles, chip wrappers, cups, paper, clothes, and even shoes and chappals that some visitors lost in the chaos of the crowd.
Right away, at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, the BMC sent out almost 100 workers from the solid waste management department to start their drive to make the city cleaner. The civic body also got 25 workers through NGOs to help with the drive.
A dumper, a shredder, five small cars, and 11.5 MT of trash
Workers for the city worked all night to load over nine metric tonnes of trash into two trucks: one dumper and one compactor. A top BMC official said that one dumper can hold up to three metric tonnes of trash and one compactor can hold up to six metric tonnes.
In addition, the local body loaded five small closed-body vehicles (SCBV) with shoes, chappals, and other recyclable items. These vehicles were then unloaded at the Suraksha Garden. The maximum weight that each SCBV can hold is 500 kg. The drive to clean up was over by 8 a.m. on Friday.
The local body says that the five small jeeps’ trash, which included recyclable items like shoes and slippers, will be sent to be processed again.
Internet users praise BMC’s work
A lot of people who went for walks on the Marine Drive walkway early in the morning praised the city workers on social media for picking up the trash overnight.
