Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation enhances cleaning and beautification of conservancy lanes

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will undertake regular cleaning and sanitation activities of conservancy lanes treating them as roads to stop dumping of garbage by people.Out of the total 483 conservancy lanes, 304 lanes have been restored and beautified by laying paver blocks, and these lanes can no longer be used for dumping waste. The BMC will instead take up regular maintenance of these lanes.Renovation work of the remaining 179 conservancy lanes is underway, and once the work is over, they will also be treated as roads. In Dec 2022, BMC came up with plans to renovate the lanes, but after beautification, people were still throwing waste from the backyards of their homes.The corporators unanimously pressed for the repair and restoration of conservancy lanes, meant to facilitate utility services such as passage for cesspool vehicles, fire engines, ambulances, and other utility vehicles. “The conservancy lanes will be maintained so that they not only look good but also serve as passage for various emergency vehicles,” said BMC additional commissioner Kailash Dash. He said they identified these lanes and planned for restoration.

“We have targeted to restore the ones in dilapidated conditions and not well demarcated,” Dash said.Conservancy lanes are roads between the rows of residential houses to facilitate utility services. These lanes are also created to pave the way for sewer lines to be laid. The BMC had to reclaim the original areas of the many conservancy lanes that were encroached upon. Beautification of the lanes has also helped reduce air pollution, BMC officials said.

Mostly, conservancy lanes are found in Unit-I, II, and VI govt quarters and residential posh localities such as Satya Nagar, Saheed Nagar, and Bapuji Nagar.

“The length and width of the conservancy lanes have been restored by conducting a survey. Along many lanes, paver block laying is currently underway to make it accessible for utility vehicles in all seasons,” a BMC officer said.In 2017, for the first time, BMC took a call in the corporation meeting to remove encroachments from conservancy lanes. Then the civic body took suggestions from residents and planned enforcement. But that didn’t proceed further. Mostly, 50% of the city’s planned areas have conservancy lanes.