News: Gurugram Manual Sweeping Falters as Old Contracts End-03-04-2026
The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) floated tenders for manual road sweeping on March 31, the very day the earlier contracts ran out, and residents say cleaning has been disrupted in several parts of the city as a result.
MCG officials said bids are still awaited for the Rs 6.8 crore, three-month contract covering four zones. The earlier contracts, held by six agencies, had been extended from September 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 at Rs 127 crore.
Savita Devi of Sector 46 told HT the corporation should have started the process in advance. Chaitali Mandhotra, co-convenor of United Gurugram RWAs, said MCG’s record on sanitation was consistently poor, which is why areas like Ardee City in Sector 52 had engaged their own sweepers.
Ward 4 councillor Pradeep Padam said the tender should have been initiated at least two months earlier. His ward needs at least 150 workers but only around 30 are reporting, he said, and there was little sign of MCG’s promised deployment of its own staff. The corporation has approximately 3,000 permanent sanitation workers and over 2,000 on contract.
Additional commissioner Ravindra Yadav said tenders will close by next week and the existing agencies have been asked to continue until then, with their approval awaited.
Residents also criticised the previous contractors. Ashwani Dabara of sector 45 said only three or four workers were ever seen on its nearly 25 kilometers of roads. Neeraj Agarwal, RWA general secretary of Sector 52, said workers had begun skipping duty in the last two-three months as the contract neared its end.
MCG’s plan to appoint two private agencies for door-to-door waste collection has also been delayed repeatedly since February. Executive engineer Sundar Sheoran said agencies had objected to contract terms and administrative issues slowed matters further.
