The approach road looks newly paved. Painted amp-posts line the path. A patch of flowers and greenery herald the hotel's entrance. But these are just cosmetic changes. The real beauty of the transformation? Orchid has now systemised the entire process of cleaning up the surroundings--they call it Advanced Locality Management--and is spreading it to other areas of Mumbai.Owned by the Kamat chain of hotels, the Orchid has been in India for more than two years now. In that period, the hotel has established its environment-friendly credentials: it received the coveted "Ecotel certification" by HVS Eco Services in 1997, a US-based environmental consulting firm for the hotel industry, and last year, it won the World Travel MarketGlobe award.

Says the Orchid's general manager, Vivek Pathiyan: ``It's all thanks to Advanced Locality Management, a technique adopted by us a year ago to clean up the surroundings, in and around the hotel area. The technique has been implemented in collaboration with the Bombay Municipal Corporation and we are the first commercial entity to take it up,'' he says.

It all began with a small messy problem: Orchid realised that it would have to construct the approach road to the hotel, as it was in a bad condition. Two sweepers were also hired to sweep the roads constantly through out the day. ``The move gradually expanded and came to be established as ALM,'' says Pathiyan.

Today, the Orchid has been able to involve about six hotels, two buildings, a nearby taxi-stand and another few shops in the area to participate in the same project. Says Harinakshi Desai, environment officer, at the Orchid: ``ALM is self-governance by local residents in association with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, andit entails concentrating on spreading awareness and providing infrastructure.''

There are two sides to locality management: motivating the local residents and shopkeepers to get involved and two, motivating the administration to support the local movement.

For any locality to fall under ALM, it has to fulfill certain criteria: the locality must appoint a locality committee consisting of a representative from every building/chawl/slum in the area; each committee has to appoint office bearers to head their committee; the area covered has to be limited to one lane or one slum or 15-20 buildings on one road.

To ensure that the local community buys into the concept, once a month, a meeting is held of all the members of the committee to discuss the problems in their respective areas. The Orchid has appointed Harinakshi Desai as the environment officer to look into these environmental projects. She is now responsible for coordinating the meetings.

Under ALM, every locality also has to ensure that there is acommon garbage collection bin within its precincts. Every household then maintains two bins to hold dry recyclable and wet organic waste separately. No debris is allowed to be thrown on the roads -- and if it happens, the person concerned is responsible for getting the mess cleared by hiring private contractors.

The local community is also made responsible for ensuring that at least one common wheel-barrow is provided to the sweepers of the buildings to help clear the garbage collected in the garbage bins. The locality committee is then responsible for the beautification of the locality and is encouraged to adopt vermiculture as a means to better living. The wet garbage, comprising kitchen waste, is converted into manure and the dry garbage is disposed off to ragpickers. This stage also entails beautification on the street.

The Orchid also advises the committee to work on the concept of mutuality and suggests collecting a sum of Re 1 daily from every flat or chawl-owner or local resident. In return, TheOrchid contributes Re 1 per room room, per day for ALM. The funds thus collected are utilised for making the locality more attractive.

While the role of the local residents is critical, the local administration also has a crucial role to play in the Orchid's advanced locality management system. The suggestions: