Gurugram: MCG to deploy sweeping machines to clean city streets

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has decided to clean at least 200 kilometres of the city roads with 10 new sweeping machines allocated by the Haryana

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has decided to clean at least 200 kilometres of the city roads with 10 new sweeping machines allocated by the Haryana government, said officials of the civic body on Monday.

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Until now, MCG used to outsource the cleaning of roads to a Delhi-based contractor. However, the cleaning process was largely labour-intensive and could cover only a fraction of the roads, said officials familiar with the matter. The civic body on Sunday cancelled its contract with its concessionaire, and Monday was the last day of its operations.

“The concessionaire had three sweeping machines. However, with each machine, at least six workers of the contractor were deputed for both maintaining them as well as manually cleaning the stretches. The process was hence slow. With the Haryana government announcing that they are phasing out outsourcing of road sweeping across the state, we have taken up the responsibility on our own,” said an MCG official in the civic body’s health wing.

Earlier in September 2019, the then directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) minister Kavita Jain had announced that the government would be providing road sweeping machines to municipal corporations and municipal councils across the state.

Between September 2019 and January 2020, 44 such machines were distributed across the state, including four for the MCG, said the civic body officials.

“Over the last three months, we have procured six more from the Haryana government. With a stock of 10 road machines, we are now fully equipped for managing the task on our own. All 10 machines will be used to clean the city streets every night,” said the MCG official.

As per MCG officials, each machine costs between ₹75 lakh and ₹1.5 crore and is capable of cleaning a stretch of 4km per hour. Officials added that a daily target of cleaning more than 200km has been set, which will help phase out the need for using manual labour for cleaning the roads.

“With the help of these machines, one stretch of road will be cleaned at least 2-3 times in a week. Besides eliminating the need of manual labour, the machines will also help in reducing air pollution across the city by not allowing dust or other suspended particles to accumulate,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, MCG.

A road sweeping machine operates like a vacuum cleaner. It first dispels a large amount of water at a particular spot, while its hydraulic broom then scrubs the road surface. Following this, a large vacuum collects dust and other particles from the streets.

MCG officials said that these machines would be put to use from midnight till 6am every day when the volume of vehicles on the roads is comparatively low.