GUWAHATI, Oct 31 � In a bid to streamline the trade activities on the Nilachal hill and bring the waste management of the entire Nilachal hill, including the Kamakhya temple under the ambit of Guwahati Municipal Corporation, the GMC is launching a drive on Nilachal from November 2.
As a part of this programme, work has been started to remove the garbage backlog from the entire hill including the Kamakhya temple and other temples on the hills and a door to door garbage collection from households and shops as well is being introduced for smooth management of solid waste.
�The first phase would include a massive cleanliness drive where more than 1,000 volunteers including NGOs, GMC employees and elected representatives of the corporation would start the cleanliness programme from 6.30 am on November 2 and the entire hill from Bhubaneshwari Temple up to the foothills of Nilachal would be cleaned by 11 am on the same day,� GMC Commissioner S Viswanathan told The Assam Tribune. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is likely to take part in the programme.
In the next phase, the street lights would be revamped to give a facelift to the entire hill.
Obtaining trade licence would be made mandatory for those running their business on Nilachal hill.
�In order to streamline the haphazard trade practice on the hill, we are planning to introduce specific vending zones, which would bring uniformity among the shops and would also remove any encroachment from the footpaths or parking zones etc. We would also prepare a database of the traders that would be shared with the city police to ensure security of the place.
Regarding door to door garbage collection the residents of the area have been given 15-day�s time to start segregating dry wastes and wet waste in two separate bins.
The long-term plan of the GMC includes setting up a bio-methanation plant on the Nilachal hill itself for producing energy from the waste generated from temples and households to light up street lights of the area.
This is for the first time the GMC has taken up the work of waste collection from the temples of Nilachal hill. Sources in the corporation said that garbage collection and cleanliness of Nilachal hill would be a continuous process.
