Day after parade, 9,000kg waste collected at Mumbai's Marine Drive

MUMBAI: The city’s unsung heroes—the dedicated cleaning workforce—were at it again on Thursday night.
After thousands of fans who had gathered to witness the Indian cricket team’s victory left Marine Drive littered, BMC-appointed workers sprang into action and collected 9,000kg of waste. Marine Drive is a VIP stretch, frequently used by MLAs and bureaucrats headed for the ongoing assembly session at Vidhan Bhavan.

BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani also congratulated the solid waste department for working through the night and ensuring Marine Drive was clean by sunrise.The sea-facing stretch was spotless by Friday morning, in time for regular walkers and joggers.
The effort taken by the cleaning staff resulted in two large dumpers and five jeeps full of garbage, including food wrappers, used water bottles, bags, shoes, slippers and various other waste items. Civic staff said one of the problems they faced was that several visitors stayed back at Marine Drive as late as 3am on Friday, hampering their work.
“The maximum garbage was found in the vicinity of Wankhede Stadium and then the Garware Club lane where people had gathered in large numbers. BMC had already prepared a plan to sweep the roads once the programme ended by deploying additional manpower through NGO workers,” said an official.
Photos and videos of the huge amount of waste were widely shared on social media on Friday, in which several netizens pointed to the need for better civic sense. In all, 25 NGO workers were deployed in the night shift and 20 BMC staff in the early morning shift.
Commending the clean-up, Marine Drive resident Mahendra Hemdev said, “Civic staff worked at lightning speed.”
Mumbai generates around 6,500 metric tonne of solid waste daily.