SMC to get machines for cleaning roads at night

Surat: After cleaning the city roads manually for over 25 years during night hours, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has now decided to deploy machines for the purpose. The civic body claimed that this would reduce cost and give better results.
SMC is adopting the method which has been successfully implemented by Indore city administration in Madhya Pradesh. Indore was top ranked city during Swacchata Sarveskshan 2018.

The Surat civic body currently employs 2,190 workers for cleaning city roads during the night time at cost of Rs 4.25 lakh per day. But despite this, dust accumulates on the roads.

So after after watching the night cleaning of roads in Indore used machines, SMC took decision to hire a contractor who will clean the roads using road sweeping machines. Fourteen of these machines with capacity to clean 28 km everyday, will have to be pressed into service by the contractor.

“Once the standing committee passes the proposal, the contractor will be pressed into service. He will be plaid Rs 8.5 lakh per month for a machine and his job will be to clean, collecting dust and removing it permanently from the road,” said Uday Naik, in-charge executive engineer SMC who is also in-charge of solid waste management.

“The cost of manual cleaning comes close to Re 1 per sq m. However, with the machines the cost will come down to 60-70 pe per sq metre.,” he added.

Naik said that many cities across the country had started using mechanized cleaning methods for their roads. “With mechanized cleaning we wont have to clean the roads every day as the dust and garbace will be completely removed from the roads,” said Dr Ashish Naik, deputy commissioner of health, SMC.

SMC has been spending more than Rs 12 crore for keeping city clean. However, in recent past it has not got the results it desired. As a result, administrators has decided to change the cleaning method.