Panchkula MC Commissioner inspects the machine outside the MC Office in Sector 14, Panchkula. (Express Photo)
The Municipal Corporation of Panchkula on Friday acquired a road sweeping machine, which comes as a gift from the state government. The machine bought at a cost of Rs 76 lakh, is one of the 44 the state government gifted to Municipal Corporations across Haryana.
The machine will start operating within the week said MC Commissioner, Sumedha Kataria, adding that it came with an all-expenses-paid contract for five years by the state government. According to officials, the contract is expendable up to seven years. However, the corporation will have to bear the cost of diesel.
According to the contract signed between the government and VN Engineering Company based in Delhi, in September, the vehicle will cover a distance of almost 34 km per day. With the speed of the vehicle to be somewhere more than 3 km/hour, the expected time for the vehicle to finish the said distance has been pegged at 10 hours. “Now we will be able to free the manpower that we had put in cleaning the town and delegate them elsewhere to improve the sanitation of the city We will put the machine to use at night as the traffic is less at the time. The citizens will also wake up to a cleaner city. We will devise a plan for the machine to clean all roads initially and then map the further route that it will take”, said Kataria.
The machine that works like a vacuum cleaner, will scrub the road by first showering it with water and then cleaning it with brushes as it moves. It will use almost 200 liters of water for 32 kilometers. The manufacturers promise removal of every dust ranging from fine dust particles to large plastic bags.
“As many as five machines have been supplied by us to cities including Panipat, Karnal, Faridabad, and Gurugram. The rest will be provided soon as well,” said Pankaj, general manager at the company and in-charge of the work in Panchkula. The Haryana Government had passed a tender last year for the same, which had been filled by four companies including TPS, Dulevo and VN Engineering company.