Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited a tender to appoint agencies for the maintenance of three quick response vehicles for the period of the next five years. The estimated cost for the tender is around Rs.
The quick response vehicles attend to the sewer complaints as well as emergencies like overflows due to choked sewer lines.
The Civic official of the sewage operation department informed us about these vehicles, "Earlier, to attend to the sewer complaints, the workers would have to load jetting pumps, water tanks, power rodding machines, and submersible pumps onto the vehicle and then carry them to the spot. This would sometimes delay the leakage repair. As a result, the BMC introduced these rapid response vehicles in 2018. The vehicles are all equipped with generators, lights, and CCTV cameras.
Meanwhile, the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 prohibits the manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment and the construction of insanitary latrines. It is also mentioned that the local authorities should use advanced technology to clean sewers.
The supplier has been operating the vehicles for the last three years. The BMC is now looking for an agency to operate these vehicles to attend to complaints and also if any emergency arises on the sewer lines in the city. These three vehicles will be used in two shifts, one each for the city and both in the eastern and western suburbs.
The vehicles will be operated in two shifts throughout the year.
The agency will have to attend 3 to 5 complaints in one shift. Each shift will be for eight hours. After flushing out the sewer line, a CCTV survey of a minimum of 40 m of sewer line in a shift should be conducted by the agency.
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