Govt clears office space equal  to 1,000 football fields in 4 yrs

Ahead of the planned relocation to the new Central Vista home, the Central Government offices are cleaning up to get as lean as possible before they move.

Analysis of data accessed by The Tribune show the Centre has cleared office spaces equal to nearly a 1,000 football fields in four years since the famous Swachhta campaign began. Between 2021 and 2025, as many as 676.25 lakh square feet of office space has been cleared of scrap and ubiquitous files.

This translates to 63 lakh sq metre and would equal nearly 1,000 football fields if FIFA dimensions were to be taken into account. A FIFA recommended football field’s dimensions average around 7,000 square metre.

The Centre has further earned Rs 3163.97 crore from scrap sales through four years. Swachhta statistics compiled by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, which oversees government efficiency division as part of the Ministry of Personnel and Public Grievances, show that nearly 136 lakh Central Government files were either closed in these four years or weeded out.

“Scrap sales through four years have earned us the revenue of three Chandrayaan Mission costs. This has become possible by changing old practices, weeding out old files and papers and adopting digital technology. This shift represents Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mandate of institutionalising cleanliness by reducing pendency in government," V Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances told The Tribune today.

He said the campaign is aimed at enabling the creation of clean, functional, efficient, citizen-centric office spaces, where people can interact with the government. Another important statistic around the ongoing drive for government efficiency relates to the levels through which a government file passes before it gets cleared.

PMO directions to ministries are to ensure that files don’t pass through more than four levels. “The idea is to achieve flatter organisations by going digital," Srinivas said. 

This digital push has meant that the number of e-files in the Indian government system have increased by 1975.71 per cent rising from about 2 lakh in 2014 to 41.69 lakh today.

The latest review of government efficiency reveals only two ministries and departments now have an average distinct transaction level greater than 5 — Department of Fertilizers at 5.01 and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation at 5.39. Others are either at level 4 or between 4 and 5.

The Centre’s cleanliness portal is now being replicated by some states, with Maharashtra and Haryana taking the lead.

Top News