Civic body takes up city cleaning on war footing

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has deployed 64 additional vehicles, including 12 excavators, for cleaning the city in January in view of the men’s hockey World Cup from January 13 to 29. With this, the total number of machinery used for mass cleaning has gone up to 150 from the existing ones.
Recently, the BMC commissioned two mechanical garbage suction, which is the first of its kind in the state and is popular as Jatayu. The machine can suck 273 cubic feet (100 kg) of waste a minute and can run for 10 hours at a stretch.
BMC deputy commissioner Suvendu Sahu said the additional machinery to be used in cleaning includes 27 tractors, 16 tippers and nine hywa. The BMC has deployed a number of machines in each of the three zones after taking into account the requirement of the area.
As far as additional manpower is concerned, the BMC has engaged 121 sanitation staff in north zone, 44 in south-east zone and 71 in south-west zone. Besides, 100 personnel have been deployed for mechanical sweeping. Sixty-personnel will be deployed (30 in each shift) at the Kalinga Stadium, the venue of hockey. The civic body has hired 34 additional waste collecting vehicles and procured 40 new ones.
Earlier, the BMC took up a drive to remove papers stuck to walls. It also cleared weeds from walls of flyovers and cleaned up dry leaves that gather under trees. It has identified garbage vulnerable points (GVP) to guide sweepers to clean the spots. The sanitary inspectors prepare compliance report to apprise the higher authorities about the cleaning exercise at the GVPs.
So far, it has cleared close to 1,000 truckloads of garbage from GVP. The cleaning is being prioritised on a mission mode.
The city needs to be presentable on the cleaning front. Specific stretches have been identified as priority road for carrying out makeover activities like fixing the potholed, plugging other loopholes in road networks, covering the uncovered drains and removing hanging cables, BMC officials said.