Bhubaneswar: The civic body will start mechanical sweeping of the city's arterial roads ahead of the hockey world cup this November.

Officials of the civic body and allied agencies on Tuesday made plans to ensure smooth conduct of the event during their monthly council meeting. The civic body will also improve drainage networks, take up a wall painting drive, improve urban transport services and set up a temporary command control center at Saheed Nagar.

Sources said an 80km stretch will be covered by mechanical sweeping for which tender process has been initiated. Besides, the civic body will also take steps to put up 100 flexi toilets across the city.

The officials have also decided to prepare a drainage master plan with help from the works department to improve the system during the monsoon and beyond.

"We will clean the basins of the 10 natural drainage channels criss-crossing the city. Work on the peripheral drains is going on will be over by the second week of June," said a civic official.

For the beautification drive, city walls will be painted on hockey themes. "We have done it in the past and, like then, will hire artists to paint the city with their creative ideas," he said.

Additional buses and non-motorised transport will be introduced ahead of the event. Besides, the government has already planned to enhane the fleet with 200 new buses.

The apart, the civic body will introduce 1,500 bicycles as part of its public cycle sharing programme, Mobike, at select areas. The bicycles will made available at docking stations and mobile apps and QR codes will be used to issue those.

A command and control centre is also being executed at BMC Bhawani Mall at Saheed Nagar and it is likely to become functional by the first week of June.

The centre will monitorthe adaptive traffic control system, track solid waste carrying vehicles, city buses, fire services and the other allied organisations.