Siliguri, Feb. 7: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) will use two hydraulic dumper placers to clear garbage from the civic area.

“We have taken the initiative under the SMC’s solid waste management programme which we have introduced in 29 of the 47 wards,” said Bikash Ghosh, the mayor.

Each machine bought last month costs Rs 6.5 lakh. The SMC has also purchased 20 containers which comes for Rs 38,000 each.

“We will keep these containers in different parts of the town from where the two machines will collect the garbage every night and will take them to the SMC’s dumping ground near the Eastern Bypass,” said Mukul Sengupta, the member in mayor-in-council (conservancy). “These new containers are covered with separate chambers for bio-degradable and non-degradable wastes. The capacity of each container is 150 cubic feet.”

Earlier, the collection of garbage was done manually in open vans and trucks. The introduction of the new system will reduce the level of pollution, civic officials said.

The SMC has already started its drive at night to clean up the kitchen wastes that are often dumped along the Hill Cart Road and Sevoke Road, two major thoroughfares of the town.

“There are about 100 hotels and restaurants located along the two major roads. Earlier, workers of the hotels and restaurants used to dump the wastes by the roadside at night creating stinking smells and ugly scenes for morning walkers,” said Ganesh Bhattacharjee, the SMC sanitary inspector. “Keeping that in mind, we are conducting this drive at night regularly.”