Solid waste management (SWM) is a crucial service governed by urban local bodies (ULB). Hence, it is essential to identify challenges and opportunities in the SWM procedures and practices towards improved delivery of services. In this study, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been applied in the three sub-divisional towns of the Hooghly district, West Bengal (India), namely Chandannagar, Hooghly-Chinsurah and Serampore to analyze the existing SWM scenario. As AHP is a Multi-Criteria Decision Making tool, hence, it has been deployed by experts to come up with SWM performance index, clearly demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of management strategies in selected study sites. This article further advances the significance of the AHP method by carving out multi-layered realities through the quantification of qualitative insights across various segments of waste management in the three towns. While interviews with waste management officials led to the formulation of key performance indicators and sub-indicators matrix, the obtained normalized weights brought to the fore the real engagement and actions executed by each of these towns in managing solid wastes. The application of this innovative AHP method ensured accuracy in the ranking system across performance of the specified ULBs. This AHP-induced situational analysis of SWM is not only significant in terms of policy formulation in the ULBs of the Hooghly district but has potentials to work at scales.
