Piles of uncollected garbage line busy roads, residential colonies, and gated societies across the city.

Gurugram, the Millennium City, is facing a garbage crisis. Even as authorities boast of transforming it into a model Smart City, the sanitation system is falling apart as the tender for door-to-door waste collection was canceled for the fifth time in the last 18 months.

This overflowing waste problem persists despite the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) controlling a budget of up to Rs 400 crore. Basic civic upkeep – waste collection, segregation, and disposal – remains in disarray.

The MCG covers nearly 50 sq km and has over 10 agencies tasked with cleanliness operations. Yet, in a city that needs around 400 garbage collection vehicles, only 200 are currently active. Arbitrary functioning, poor coordination, and lack of supervision dominate the system. As a result, roughly 5.5 lakh households and shops do not receive full waste collection coverage.

The situation is especially dire at the more than 250 “garbage vulnerable points” – locations where waste builds up daily. Gurugram produces nearly 1,200 tonnes of waste every day, but even after sending 900–1,000 tonnes to the Bandhwari plant in Faridabad, tonnes of refuse remain unattended. From the older city to its newer sectors, garbage heaps are now an inescapable part of the landscape.

What makes this even more shocking is that Gurugram contributes nearly 65 percent of Haryana’s total revenue. Yet, the city’s basic infrastructure appears neglected. MCG’s helpline receives 40 to 50 sanitation complaints every day, often more, signaling a public system in distress.

Newslaundry visited multiple neighbourhoods across Gurugram to assess the scale of the problem and the apparent disconnect between the city’s smart promises and stinking realities.

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