LAHORE: A door-to-door solid waste collection is set to be launched in Lahore metropolitan city soon after the success of a pilot project. Around 1,000 loader-rickshaws of the total 3,000 will also be received within the next 15 days in a bid to formally launch the door-to-door collection drive, Dawn has learnt. “In recent months, we launched this pilot project in 10 of 274 union councils of Lahore with existing resources. The activity remained successful, prompting us to launch this project in phases starting from 100 of the total 274 union councils,” a spokesman for the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) explained while talking to Dawn on Sunday. “For this, 1,000 of the total 3,000 loader rickshaws/waste lifters will be received within the next 15 days followed by the next 1,000 by March and the last 1,000 by June, this year.” According to him, initially, there would be no fee on door-to-door collection. However, the fee/tax will be imposed on all households later on. Meanwhile, a press release issued here states that the LWMC led initiatives to establish sanitation system in 103 tehsils under the Suthra Punjab programme in 2024. Quick response to major cleanliness challenges and individual services further solidified the company’s role. The sanitation system in Lahore was expanded to include door-to-door services, cleaning of 500 markets and 400 villages. On Eidul Azha 2024, the company successfully managed disposal of 1,581,375 tonnes of waste in Lahore, including 54,000 tonnes of animal remains. Additionally, 1.4 million eco-friendly waste bags were distributed across the city. The 1139 helpline, along with webmail and social media platforms, resolved 75,234 complaints while five complaints from the Clean Lahore app were also addressed. The LWMC enforcement wing conducted 486,682 inspections during the year. Action against illegal dumping included issuing 10,358 challans, imposing fines Rs231.85m and serving 47,741 notices. The enforcement wing also registered 313 FIRs, prosecuted 1,159 violators, and seized 383 vehicles involved in illegal dumping activities. In 2024, the LWMC implemented a range of measures to combat the harmful effects of smog, ensuring that major roads in the city underwent scraping, washing, sprinkling and anti-smog activities across 45 main roads. These steps were aimed at reducing the impact of smog on public health and the environment. Under the supervision of the Community Mobilisation Department, the LWMC organised over 97,660 special cleanliness awareness campaigns throughout the year. The company has embarked on a transformative journey to enhance the city’s cleanliness by expanding its door-to-door waste collection services to 1.5m households. Each worker has been assigned the responsibility of cleaning 240 homes and 800 meters of streets to ensure effective waste management. To further improve the quality of services, 10 loader rickshaws have been deployed in each union council, accompanied by the inclusion of new machinery and a trained workforce. Modern sweeping machines, dump trucks, and other advanced equipment have been procured to streamline the cleaning process.