Pune: Sweeping Drive Under Review as PMC Flags Flaws in Road Mapping
Pune, 23rd October 2026: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will decide whether to extend its experimental performance-based road sweeping initiative after reviewing its three-month performance report, with the standing committee seeking a status report from the administration by October 30.
The initiative, launched by the civic body’s solid waste management department for a three-month trial, made contractors accountable for keeping their assigned areas clean. Contractors were liable for penalties if garbage or unclean conditions were found in their designated stretches during surprise inspections.
The PMC has so far collected around Rs 6.5 lakh in fines from various contractors, imposing a penalty of Rs 1,000 per worker for each instance of uncleanliness.
As part of the initiative, the number of workers deployed for sweeping was increased from around 4,500 to 9,000. Manpower allocation was planned based on designated stretches of 700 metres each.
However, the exercise also exposed flaws in the mapping of sweeping zones. The administration failed to accurately measure and classify roads before finalising the boundaries, resulting in internal roads within private housing societies being included alongside public roads.
Despite these shortcomings, officials claimed during a meeting that the pilot initiative had improved public cleanliness.
“The administration has been asked to submit a status report on the initiative’s performance over the past three months by October 30. The standing committee will review the report and then decide whether to extend the initiative,” said standing committee chairman Shrinath Bhimale.
