Ludhiana’s ₹1,400-cr garbage management plan extends its stay in the dump

Ludhiana: The Ludhiana municipal corporation has once again extended the bidding deadline for its ₹1,408 crore integrated solid waste management project until Friday. Despite attempting to hire a private firm since September 2025, the civic body has failed to launch the project due to a complete lack of interest from private companies, leaving officials uncertain about getting a response by the new deadline.

The comprehensive project is designed to streamline door-to-door household garbage collection, clear secondary collection points, and resume waste processing at the main dump site, which has been completely halted for the past five years.

Private firms are reportedly avoiding the project due to political and operational risks. A civic body official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, revealed that large companies are reluctant to step in due to the upcoming assembly elections and fierce opposition from local garbage collectors’ unions, who fear losing their livelihoods if door-to-door collection is privatised.

The project has faced a tumultuous timeline and massive cost escalations over the last nine months. The civic body made its first attempt in September 2025 by floating separate tenders for the city’s four zones, initially focusing only on door-to-door collection at a cost of ₹170 crore.

Later, the corporation decided to merge all garbage disposal operations into a single integrated project, causing the cost to leap to ₹1,100 crore. This shift triggered heavy protests from labour unions, culminating in a dramatic MC House meeting on February 9, where the project was initially approved.

Following a subsequent review, officials deemed the ₹1,100 crore estimate inappropriate and revised the total cost to the current ₹1,408 crore, a figure that has already received formal approval from the Finance and Contracts Committee. Superintending engineer Sham Lal Gupta did not respond to queries regarding the latest extension.