A garbage-strewn street in the state capital

Dec. 26: Know what’s a clean sweep? Come January 1 and one will be able to see mechanised sweepers cleaning the city streets.

With this, the city will become the first one in the Northeast to start mechanised sweeping and maintenance of roads. The use of new technology for efficient cleaning of the roads was necessitated in view of the National Games to be held in the city from February 9 to18.

Taking a cue from other leading cities, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) will launch mechanised sweeping to bring an end to the exhaustive, time-consuming and complex exercise of manually cleaning the roads.

GMC deputy mayor Dipankar Ghosh said the corporation has procured one of the most advanced high-speed mechanised sweeper for Rs 26 lakh. He said Guwahati development minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will flag off the inaugural run of the machine on January 1. “On New Year’s day, the sweeper — 3D JCB — will be visible in action keeping important sections of roads clean and well maintained,” he added.

The machine purchased from the UK-based J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited has different attachments meant for brooming, levelling and cutting. Ghosh said they plan to procure more such machines in the near future.

The machine is equipped with revolving nylon and steel brushes to sweep dirt, sand, soil and leaves from the road surface. The waste is sucked up in two dust trays mounted at the sides. Ghosh said the machine can be operated by a single operator and will cut down on the manpower requirement for cleaning the city roads manually. If one sweeper covers 700 metres, the GMC requires 900 sweepers for the 630-kmof city roads whereas its present strength of sweepers is 700.

He said the machine was procured from the funds provided by the Guwahati development department. The deputy mayor said the disposal of around 300 metric tonnes of garbage every day has become a difficult task as most of the sanitation work is carried out manually. He hoped that the new innovation would help improve the situation considerably.

“We look forward to everyone’s support in our endeavour,” he added. Apart from the new machine, GMC will extensively utilise its existing two excavators, three loaders, 16 tipper trucks and 100 handcarts to strengthen its conservancy work.