PATNA: A spider-shaped robotic machine nicknamed ‘Bandicoot’, named after an Australian rat-like marsupial, will come to the rescue of manual scavengers in the city who will no longer have to take the risk of going down manholes and sewers to unclog them.
The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is soon going to introduce the robotic cleaning machine, Bandicoot, which would eliminate the need for human intervention in cleaning sewer holes.
“It is crucial to ending manual scavenging as workers are prone to infection and other health hazards and sometimes even loss of human lives also occur,” said PMC commissioner Himanshu Sharma.
In May 2017, two PMC workers had died of suffocation while cleaning a sewer line at the Income Tax- roundabout.
To initiate the first-of-its-kind project in the city the civic body signed an MoU with the Indian Oil Corporation Limited on Thursday. The IOCL would provide Rs 40 lakh to the PMC as part of its corporate social responsibility programme to procure the robot.
The Bandicoot, developed by a start-up called ‘Genrobotics’, cleans manholes and sewers with precision. It takes 15 minutes to clean small sewers and around 45 minutes to unclog bigger ones. The robot was developed under the Make in India initiative.
The PMC commissioner said the civic body would procure the machine from the Centre’s Government e-Market portal, which is likely to be here by the end of February 2021.
“The robotic machine is for the mechanised cleaning of manholes, and it will be the first-of-its-kind machine in Bihar. From next year, manhole cleaning will be done by the new machine and workers will not enter the sewer,” he said.
The Centre has announced a slew of measures to end the discriminatory and hazardous practice of manual scavenging by August 2021 under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, he added.
“Right now, we are purchasing one machine, which will be operated and maintained by the PMC as a pilot project. If required, we will again request the IOCL to procure more machines. Civic officials will get training to operate this machine. For the big drains, the PMC will carry out the desilting exercise through bob carts and other machines, which we used,” Sharma said during the signing of MoU.
Pramod Ranjan DGM (HR-CSR), IOCL- Bihar said this initiative has been successful in several cities of the country. “Under the CSR, the machine was provided to Jaipur, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad and other cities by the IOCL,” he said.
Highlighting the important features of the robotic machine, Ranjan said the robot lifts the heavy metal cover on its own, drops its arm into the manhole, scoops out the solid waste and dumps it in a bucket. “The robot's operations can be seen on a monitor. The machine is fibre-made and easily movable,” he said.
Patna Mayor Sita Sahu appreciated the IOCL and PMC for the initiative and said manual scavengers face health hazards like exposure to harmful gases, cardiovascular degeneration, muscular and skeletal disorder, infection, skin problem and respiratory issues. “Sometimes the most tragic consequences have also been reported,” she added.
Apart from Kerala, Bandicoot cleans sewers in 12 other states, such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Additional municipal commissioners Devendra Prasad Tiwari and Sheela Irani, other officials of IOCL and PMC were present during the signing of the MoU.