The civic body is buying a host of new machines to replace manual labour in garbage collection and scavenging.
“A total of Rs 9.72 crore has been sanctioned to buy the machines,” said Devashis Jana, mayor-in-council member in charge of conservancy. “After the government of India banned scavengers, it had become difficult to clean underground drainage and sewerage lines. So we’re buying a super-sucker worth Rs 64 lakh. It will be mounted on a truck and will go around cleaning underground drains and manholes.”
The corporation is buying the machines from Hyva and TPS Infrastructure.
It is also buying a machine to clean the drains, which is aptly called the Nala Man. This machine will be used for scavenging in underground channels. “Earlier manual scavengers picked up all the filth and toilet waste with their hands. This machine has mechanical hands to extract the waste and place it in a collection bin it is attached to. We are buying four such machines at Rs 9 lakh a piece,” he said.
Another machine being considered is a mini tipper that will replace garbage vans. “We will have a mini tipper for each ward. They will pick up garbage and dump it straight in a mobile compacter. Since the tipper will be covered it won’t drop bits of garbage on its way to the dump yard. These tippers are costing us Rs 6 lakh each,” he pointed out.
Four cesspools, mounted on trucks are also being bought to clean septic tanks and they would cost around Rs 8 lakh each.
Also on the anvil is a steer loader to pick up the waste and dump it on the truck. The average cost for this machine would be Rs 7-8 lakh. They are also buying five compacters, at a total cost of Rs 32 lakh, that would compress the volume of garbage.
“The idea is to reduce man-force and carry out maximum work with the help of machines,” said Jana. “The machines would be stationed at the various compact stations such as near Tank 4 footbridge and near Tank 13 in Purbachal.
“Everything should be up before the Pujas. Door-to-door garbage collection, however, would continue to be done manually. And segregation of waste would have to be done at source,” he said.
