Pune’s road cleaning operations have expanded under a revised Pune Municipal Corporation policy, with 9,523 contractual workers now assigned to sweep roads and public spaces and chronic garbage spots reported to have declined across much of the city.
The new system is being implemented on a pilot basis from 1 August to 31 October. Under the earlier arrangement, contractors were primarily responsible for supplying workers, while PMC health inspectors and supervisors were responsible for ensuring that the work was carried out. Contractors could not be held directly accountable for poor performance.
The revised policy transfers responsibility for the work, supervision and outcomes to contractors. The civic body has added 4,700 workers under the new arrangement, while officials have also been monitoring operations across the city. Additional Municipal Commissioner Prajit Nair and Deputy Commissioner Santosh Warule inspected several areas and imposed fines running into lakhs of rupees where contractors were found to be avoiding their duties, according to the report.
PMC currently has about 5,500 employees involved in sweeping work, but the municipal workforce had been considered insufficient for covering the city’s roads and public spaces. Contract workers have therefore been deployed across 15 regional offices. The expanded workforce is intended to cover both major roads and smaller lanes, with contractors required to remove roadside waste promptly.
The municipal administration said daily sweeping has increased the quantity of collected waste by about 200 tonnes. The rise, officials said, indicates that waste previously left on roads and in public areas is now being collected through more regular operations. The report also said that roadside garbage piles, described as chronic spots, have reduced significantly in several parts of Pune.
The civic body attributed other visible changes to the revised system, including reduced quantities of soil, stones and gravel on roads, lower dust levels and fewer instances of slippery road surfaces. Officials also said workers were now required to perform assigned duties rather than merely register attendance, while contractor accountability had reduced the scope for political interference in the cleaning process.
The largest workforce allocation is in the Nagar Road-Wagholi area, with 1,512 workers, followed by the Sinhagad Road area with 1,414. Aundh-Baner has 955 workers, while Warje-Karvenagar has 926 and Yerawada-Wadgaon Sheri has 771. Other allocations include Hadapsar-Manjari with 622, Dhankawadi-Katraj with 597, Kondhwa-Undri with 542, Dhole Patil Road with 497, Kothrud-Bavdhan with 475, Bibwewadi with 325, Shivajinagar-Ghole Road with 335, Vishrambaug Wada with 277 and Wanawadi with 275. The Kasba Peth office was listed without an allocation in the report.
Nair said the new policy had increased daily waste collection by around 200 tonnes while improving the cleanliness of roads and public spaces. He added that the PMC was preparing to issue tenders for the next phase of the work after the pilot period and intended to make further improvements to the city’s cleaning operations.
